


Burning Bridges, Building Confidence

by BeanWritesStuff



Series: Burning Bridges, Building Confidence [5]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: #TheLilaRoleplayerHasNoRightsHere, Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Bullying, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/F, Fanon Felix because Canon has let me down, Hurt Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Major Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Episode: s03 Caméléon | Chameleon, References to Hamlet, Things Get Better, ml salt, salt fic, tw: gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2020-10-12 23:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 43,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20572445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeanWritesStuff/pseuds/BeanWritesStuff
Summary: When Marinette's life starts going downhill from the machinations of a liar, she's never felt more alone.However, a familiar face reappears in Marinette's life after nine years, an event which shakes the situation up, both in and out of her mask. With a new player on the field, friends become enemies and some enemies become friends.With her new friends at her back, Marinette begins to learn that to move on, some bridges just have to burn. And the match is being lit.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Sadly I don't own Miraculous Ladybug. If I did, well, there'd be a lot that would have been changed.
> 
> Special thanks to bigcheeseyboi on Tumblr for being my Beta reader on this and helping me so much.
> 
> There will also be some one shots added in a series outside this work, but they'll be interspersed between chapter updates after chapter 1 is here.

Marinette felt something off about the air as she wandered down the halls of her school. It felt like an eternity for her to get to the end of the hallway. At the end was the only light coming out of any of the classrooms, accompanied by voices. Her feet seemed to move of her own accord, using an energy her mind and body seemed to lack. 

“Thank you so much everyone!” A voice said. Where was the voice from? It made her gut twist and her hairs stand on end. She got to the room and pushed the door open.

The room wasn’t a classroom, it looked like a fairytale wedding venue. Marinette felt a spark run up her spine and saw her clothes had become some mixture between a traditional Chinese wedding dress and a gorgeous trumpet gown, white accented with red; pink and black appearing in the details on the skirt. Her hair felt longer, pulled halfway up in a bun with apple blossom decorations. Thankfully she still felt the energy of her miraculous in her ears.

She stepped into the room, wary of touching anything as she picked up her skirt just enough that she could walk gently. Joy washed over her body, this was her day, the day she’d marry the love of her life. This was her happy ending, the stress of Hawkmoth was behind her and she was marrying someone that loved her _ completely _. She noticed her name on a stray invitation, but she couldn’t read the other name, her eyes couldn’t seem to focus on it. Returning the invitation to the table, she wandered around the area. 

Beautiful apple blossom decor mixed with gorgeous white, gold, and black decor. Sometimes she’d see a burst of red in the form of roses or blue in the form of tulips. They both stood out and blended with the deep applewood walls and the cream colored walls. As Marinette studied the cake, one of her parents’ handiwork no doubt, and the custom figures on the top were likely hers, the voice came again.

“This is my happiest day, I’m so glad you could join me on my wedding day!” The voice wasn’t hers. Marinette moved as quick as she could to the large doors that the voice came from, noting the beautifully done makeup on her reflection as she passed. She turned back and noticed the door had vanished. Picking up her dress she wandered inside, hearing a cheering crowd. 

She spotted several familiar faces in the crowd, but there were some she couldn't find. Where were her parents? Her Nonna? Uncle Jagged and Aunt Penny? Where was Chloe? The crowd shifted and she could see the couple in the center. Adrien looking wholly uncomfortable and not acting like the groom his ill fitted suit. Next to him, clad in an atrocity that no one with eye would ever consider a _ dress, _ let alone one for a wedding, was….

Lila.

The Italian looked like she'd just sauntered in off the streets in a wedding dress made of dime store materials and hatred, gaudy makeup like an 80s Barbie, that hideous mop of sausage hair completely unchanged, and _ was that orange lipstick!? _

_ Marinette wanted to vomit. _

“To the bride!” They cheered. “To the groom!”

“What?” Marinette breathed, bluebell eyes wide. This couldn’t be happening. This was her wedding day, Lila shouldn’t have gotten anywhere near the venue, she wasn’t even invited, and Adrien looked too poorly dressed to be the groom. Where was her other half? She spun around, skirt flaring as she tried to find someone, _ anyone _, who could give her answers. 

“Marinette quit looking for attention and come cheer on the newlyweds!” Alya yelled, glaring at someone just over her shoulder, in the glaringly opposite direction of Marinette herself. 

“Alya what are you doing!?” Marinette yelled, not noticing how distorted her voice sounded. “I’m right here! My name’s on all the invitations! Can’t you see it isn’t their wedding!? Lila’s lying again!” 

“Marinette don’t be selfish!” Kim called, again not in the direction of the actual bride. “Just be happy for them!”

Marinette ran around the group, trying to get their attention. Each time she called out, they spat some insult or admonishment about how she should be celebrating the false bride at the true bride’s wedding. Finally she yelled,

“You’re not even looking at me!” She heard a sob, two sobs, a whole symphony of sobs. The true bride spun on her heels and ran toward the noise. Suddenly it all became clear. 

Her mother, dressed in a gown similar to those of the rest of the bridal party, a soft pink with an apple blossom ornament in her hair, sobbed on the ground. Her father embraced his wife, drowning her in his large form, large tears rolling down his face. Nonna was crying, comforted by her grandfather, while Uncle Jagged and Aunt Penny were crying too. 

“Mama? Papa?” Marinette approached warily. “Nonna? Uncle Jagged? What’s wrong? What’s going on?” Her shoes clacked on the flooring as she approached, only to screech to a halt as she saw what they were crowded around. 

It was her. Face ashen and dress covered in blood splatter. Her nails were bloody and broken, while her eyes looked sunken. Right over her heart was what had to be the result of several stab wounds, spreading the blood off her still form and across the floor. 

“Can you believe Marinette?” A voice called over her shoulder. “Faking a stab wound for attention, bet she got her entire family in on it.”

“What the hell is wrong with you people!?” Marinette yelled. “I’ve been stabbed! I’m dead! Oh my god I’m dead at my own wedding!”

She ran to the crowd, anger boiling under her skin. She shoved past Nathaniel and Alix, bursting into the center around the false couple. “What are you people doing!? There’s a dead body over there and they’re clearly NOT the people getting married today! That liar is wearing cheap dress that looks like it came from a halloween store and she,” Marinette spun on her heel only to stop. “She killed me.”

Lila, seemingly the only one able to see the true Marinette standing in front of her, stood proud, her cheap dress covered in blood splatter, a still gorey knife in the place of a bouquet. An evil grin was stretched across her face, “I’m so happy that everyone I love could join me on my wedding day.” She said, as if it were the truth. A blood red string wound it’s way around from her fingertips to the joints of those around her. The guests were no longer people, they were puppets, strings held by a liar. 

“I told you you’d lose everything,” Lila sneered, glaring at the bride. “Your life will be in shambles, because no one will love you, no one will be at your side.”

Before Marinette could react, the faux bride slammed the knife into the bride’s chest.

* * *

Marinette awoke with a yell, bolting upright. Her eyes jolted around the room, scared she’d find a lying Italian with a knife in her room. Tikki was at her side in a moment. 

“Marinette breathe,” She urged. “It was just a dream.”

“It was horrible Tikki,” Marinette said, shaking like a leaf. “I-I was at the school, then it was my w-wedding. But Lila was there, acting like it was her wedding. Everyone was telling me I was causing a scene, but I wasn’t even there! They were talking to my dead body in a corner, Lila had killed me, her dress was bloody and everything, but they thought I was faking. T-then, she stabbed me and I woke up.” 

Tikki frowned, wiping tears from her chosen’s eyes, tilting the girl’s head up with a paw. “Marinette, I promise you, nothing like that will _ ever _happen, not on my watch. As long as I’m kicking, she will never be able to come after you like that, no one will.”

“Thank you Tikki,” Marinette sniffled. She wiped her eyes again and looked over at the clock, it was a little past three thirty, and she needed as much sleep as she could get. “I’ll try to go back to sleep, good night Tikki.” 

“Good night Marinette,” the red kwami kissed her chosen’s forehead, leaving a bit of magic glowing on the spot. “Have some good dreams this time.”

As Marinette drifted off to happy memories and the feeling of flying over the Parisian night sky, Tikki settled down next to her, angrier and more determined than ever that things needed to change.

* * *

Elsewhere in Paris a car pulled up to a more upscale multi-floor abode. The doors opened and a teenager stepped out. Nodding their thanks to the driver, they got their bags out of the trunk of the car, allowing the driver to leave. The teen checked their phone’s address book.

“This is the place,” they said in English. They lifted their bags over their shoulders and moved up the steps. When they got to the door they knocked boldly. The light flickered on in the living room and the door clicked before opening. 

Standing before them was a woman with the same brown hair and green eyes. Wrapped in a bathrobe and wearing slippers, tears sprung into the woman’s eyes. 

“Hi Mom.” The two collapsed into a hug, neither afraid of the tears running down their cheeks attracting any akuma. They were tears of joy after all.


	2. A New-Old Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a new member of Mme. Bustier's class, but Marinette gladly finds it's not a new face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was once again beta read by bigcheeseyboi on Tumblr and deserves so much thanks for reading through all the chapters I have already written for this. I also decided that the upload dates for this will be Sundays, since it's my free day.

A few days later, Marinette moved up the stairs of the school, far before anyone else had even arrived. Dark bags were barely concealed by second day foundation as she walked into the classroom, taking her seat in the far back. She felt Tikki roll in her sleep inside her purse; it had been a hard night for both of them, a stubborn akuma combined with Chat’s constant flirting caused them to spend the entire night fighting the akuma. They got back just in time for a twenty minute power nap before they had to get ready.

The Chinese-French girl yawned, curling up on the bench for an attempt to get a few more minutes of sleep, using the pushed in bench to get some dark and quiet space. She hoped that no one would mess with her, she’d even taken to putting locks on her bags, hiding the keys on a piece of twine in her purse next to Tikki. Less chance for Lila to steal something and/or plant evidence to frame her because the designer wouldn’t put it past that vile liar to do just that.

Marinette wasn’t sure when she drifted off, but either way she awoke to a large amount of noise and someone gently tapping on her shoulder. She turned over on the bench to see someone leaning over her.

“It is time to wake up, the class will start soon.” The person was speaking in awkwardly pronounced French, with a twangy hint and strong ‘r’ sound that Marinette remembered was an American accent. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, somehow missing the desktop. With her vision clearing, she turned to the new person. 

She was easily taller than most of the class, save for maybe Ivan, with skin that was slightly tanned, likely by the sun. Her hair was a caramel colored mess that obscured her right side of her face, leaving her vivid green left eye to peek out. Marinette blinked for a second before breaking into a smile.

“Right.” She sat up, scooting over and patting the bench on her right side. The girl sat down, pulling out a notebook and pencil from a cool looking backpack. She then pulled a cord from the side and wrapping it around, snapping a lock shut once it was wrapped securely around the backpack. Marinette rubbed her eyes again and stole a glance around the room, noting her classmates crowding around Lila, throwing glares and stares at the two girls every once in a while. 

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, alerting Marinette to a message. She pulled the phone, now with a tough case and screen protector, and unlocked it. There was a Discord message.

_ Cat-with-a-Bat.jpeg _ _ : u ok? _

She turned to the girl next to her, eyebrows in a ‘really?’ face before turning back to her phone. 

_ Stitches-and-Swatches _ _ : v little sleep _

_ Cat-with-a-Bat.jpeg _ _ : want sum o my coffee? _

Marinette nodded wearily, the girl slid a tall travel mug over to her. The heroine sighed in relief and took a huge swig of the warm liquid. The caffeine rushed through her system and within a few moments she was more alert.

_ Stitches-and-Swatches _ _ : thank u _

_ Cat-with-a-Bat.jpeg _ _ : np. surprised 2 c me? _

_ Stitches-and-Swatches _ _ : maybeso.gif _

_ Cat-with-a-Bat.jpeg _ _ : i was planning on picking u up and walking here together but ur mom said you left early :( _

Before Marinette could reply, Mme. Bustier walked in. She placed her stack of papers on the desk before surveying the class, noting the two distinct groups. Most of the class around Lila, while the two girls up top and Chloé were the other group. 

“Class, time to start,” Mme. Bustier announced. The class wandered to their seats. “In case you haven’t noticed, we have a new student. Please introduce yourself.”

The girl next to Marinette, surveyed the class with a bored glare. “My name is Collette Sullivan.”

Mme. Bustier’s mouth set in a frown, “Won’t you tell the class a little about yourself? Are you sure you’ll be alright back there? You had mentioned your ”

“There is not much to tell. I am from America. I hate nicknames from strangers. That is all.” 

Mme Bustier sighed before starting the lecture, this one on Shakespearean play  _ Hamlet _ . About halfway through, Collette perked up. She nudged Marinette, who had begun to doze off again. 

_ “She knows she’s recalling Othello, right?”  _ Collette said in english. Marinette paused for a moment before nodding. 

_ “I stopped listening once she mentioned Gertrude being in love with Claudius and called ‘Romeo and Juliet’ a love story.”  _

“Marinette, Collette,” Mme Bustier called. “Do you have something you’d like to share with the class?”

Collette glared back. “Yes. You do realize that you have been quoting Othello for the past fifteen minutes right? And Hamlet isn’t simply crazy, there’s been centuries of debate on that. I think you need to fix your notes a bit, you must’ve mixed something up.” 

Mme Bustier blinked for a few moments, as did the rest of the class. No one had ever spoken to her or any teacher like that. 

“So it seems I have,” Mme. Bustier noted, looking at her notes. “Well, give me a few minutes class while I go get a full copy from the library.” The teacher spun on her feet and walked out of the room. 

In an instant all eyes were on the new girl.

“What?” She asked as deadpan as can be, giving each of them a bored gaze. 

“You can’t just talk to teachers like that!” Alya exclaimed. 

“She asked if I had something to share so I did. Got a problem with that?” Instantly there was an uproar, Rose and Mylene were wondering how she could be so mean and insult Romeo and Juliet like that; Lila was lying (something about meeting a student who she had to save after talking back to the teacher or something stupid like that); Max was reiterating the statistics of how likely she was to get in trouble for talking back like that and Kim and Ivan were simply glaring at her. Nino was saying how much of a buzzkill she was while Alya began yelling again.

Cole noticed that the only ones who weren’t crowding around her were a blonde girl a few seats over with earbuds and music playing, a boy with red hair in his face, and a blond down in front. So complacency with the latter two, great. 

Mme. Bustier came in a few moments later with a proper copy of  _ Hamlet _ and a relieved smile across her face, which quickly turned to a frown when she saw her class ganging up on the new girl and said new girl moments away from murder. 

“Back in your seats class,” her voice held all the class needed to return to their seats, giving one last glare to the new girl. Class went on as well as it could have until the lunch bell rang. As she strode down with Marinette close behind her, Cole leveled a glare at each student, stepping over Kim’s purposefully outstretched leg and signalling Marinette that it was there.

They weren’t anything but sheep, and what was a herd of sheep to a human being?

* * *

Chloé wasn’t sure what to think of the new girl. When she walked into the class and gave zero indication of anyone else in the class, even her, Chloé was intrigued. 

If the new girl’s tousled hair, vivid green eye, cropped jacket, fingerless gloves, multiple ear piercings and ripped jeans set her cheeks alight, then it was no one else’s business but hers. 

As she watched Dupain-Cheng, no  _ Marinette _ , lead Collette around, Chloé followed at a distance. Sabrina had long since ditched her for Lila’s flock of sheep, so she had no one to worry about following her. 

_ "No way Nettie," _ The new girl teased in english. The duo ran past the rest of the class who, like the sheep they’d become, surrounded Lila to hear her garbage fire of lies. Chloé ignored the arrogant Italian and followed the two girls.

“I’m telling you Lettie,” Marinette replied. They passed the glaring sheep and went out the door. Marinette had long since stopped staying at school for lunch, opting to go home for lunch instead. “There’s this really cute cafe two streets over, you’ll love it!”

Cole’s laugh, twangy and loud, echoed down the hall. Chloé easily caught sight of the new girl’s backpack, with a wrap around cord and a lock surrounding it, it was a dull gray and black contrasted by her cropped leather jacket, brightly colored bandana, silver earrings (with an ear cuff that just kept  _ distracting  _ Chloé during class), or the mess of hair that was likely styled to be a bit sharper and  _ oh no she’s rambling _ .

_ “Really?”  _

“Yeah, they have that spicy chicken you like,” Marinette gave a cheeky grin to the girl. “Even if it pales in comparison to a nice pastry.”

The taller girl gives her an edgeless glare, before giving a theatrical laugh. “As if! Your sweet and flaky pastries are weak against the fires of my spicy chicken! Does your friend back there want to come?”

Chloé jolted as she realized she’d been caught. She steps out from behind the pilliar she’d ducked behind.

“Chloé?” Marinette asks. “I thought you’d be in the cafeteria already.”

Chloé tsks and and looks affronted. “And be assaulted by the lowering IQ of our class and the attention whore that is Rossi? No thank you.”

“I wholeheartedly agree,” Cole replied, her French no longer stilted and formal. “It takes all I have to not just toss her out the window into the dumpster where she belongs. Oh where are my manners,” she holds out a hand. “The name’s Collette Sullivan.”

“Chloé Bourgeois,” The blonde replies, shaking the taller girl’s hand. They shook briefly before Marinette spoke again.

“Chloé, do you want to join us for lunch?”

“If you’re extending the invitation, sure.” Cole smiled as the three walked out. To Marinette’s surprise, Chloé didn’t call for her car, opting to just walk with them. 

They found there way to the cafe about seven minutes later, the hostess seating them kindly. They ordered their drinks, latte for Chloé, cherry soda for Marinette, and water for Cole. As they sipped their beverages, Cole pulled out a notebook, writing things down as her left arm bumping against the wall of the booth.

“You’ve got guts Collette, I’ll give you that.” Chloé said out of the blue. “No one would ever talk to Bustier like that, let alone call her out, even if she’s wrong.”

Cole looked up from her notebook, and ran a hand through her bangs. “Thanks I guess. I just really like Shakespeare and I hate when people don’t give it the thought it deserves. Especially the Romeo and Juliet thing. It always drove me up the wall.”

Marinette smiled, looking to Chloé. “She takes her Shakespeare very seriously.” She turned to Cole. “Didn’t you play Hamlet at one point?”

“I memorized his soliloquy, yes,” Cole took a big sip of her water. “Shame the only time I can remember performing it was in class standing on a rolling chair and wearing a recycling bin on my head.” Chloé let out an unladylike snort of laughter, the two other girls looked to her.

“Do you happen to have video of that,” Chloé laughed. “I’d love to see it.”

For a moment Marinette feared that Chloé was reverting to her old ways, but Cole lit up, pulling out her phone and unlocking it at lighting speed. It was a few taps later that Cole passed Chloé the phone, offering her the earbuds. After a few moments Chloé began to snicker. She burst out laughing a few minutes later. She put the phone down and took a few moments to collect herself.

“That’s...amazing,” Chloé gasped out, still recovering from her laughter. “You definitely put a lot of work into that.”

“Thanks.” The waitress came back and the three girls ordered their food. “I was running on about two hours of sleep when I did that, I’m surprised that I got it right.”

“Just as Shakespeare intended,” Marinette joked. Cole nodded and laughed aloud.

“Shakespeare was crazy,” the brunette replied. “And you can add so many spins to the stories when you’re performing.”

The waitress came back in near record time, dropping off Cole’s spicy chicken, Marinette’s croissant sandwich, and Chloé’s sushi. The three girls began to eat their lunch when Chloé asked a question,

“I’ve been meaning to ask, Mme Bustier mentioned a vision problem you had, but you refused to move up front. Why?”

Cole looked uncomfortable for a moment before replying. “It’s nothing that affects how I see out of this eye,” She pointed to the visible green eye, before pulling back her bangs and clipping them back. “This eye however is a bit...MIA I should say.”

“Whoa,” Chloé gasped. She took a moment to look at the eyepatch that covered Cole’s eye socket. It was black, with embroidered begonias, rhododendron, and mint leaves on it, while beneath it, some medical gauze and padding peeked out from behind it. 

“How does the eyepatch fit?” Marinette asked. “Does it hurt?”

“The eyepatch is fine Mari,” Cole replied. She put a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “Thanks for embroidering it for me. You’re the best cousin ever.”

“Wait,” Chloé interrupted. “You two are related? No wonder you got along so quickly.”

The two cousins nodded in unison, before bursting out laughing. Cole added, “Yeah, my mom and her dad are siblings. But I lived in America for a long while. I’m glad to be here though, I missed being with my family.” 

Chloé looked between the two, the resemblance was there, faintly. The same freckles, same ears, similar noses too. And from what she remembered of Gina Dupain, her eyes matched her granddaughter’s, the hairstyle and clothing was also an indicator.

“Well I hope you have a good time in Paris,” Chloé replied. “And if you ever want to hang out, well, you know where to find me.”

“I’d be glad to hang out with you if you want. And Chloé?”

“Yes?”

“You can call me Cole if you want to.” Chloé nodded, feeling quite warm inside. She remembered Cole’s introduction earlier that day  _ ‘I hate nicknames from strangers.’  _ Chloé must not be a stranger anymore then. Marinette’s smile seemed to confirm it.

They paid for their lunch and began to walk back to the school. As they got there, they heard a commotion from the cafeteria.

“MARINETTE!” Alya’s screech rang out. The blogger came storming down the stairs and right up to the designer. “How dare you! Bullying Lila when she went to the bathroom! Threatening to take away her friends! How could you be so selfish!? And you!” She spun to Cole. “Lila knows what you did! She heard about you faking a vision problem to try and get attention! You should be ashamed!”

Before Marinette could say anything, Alya was backpedalling, followed closely by Cole, whose aura had changed to be downright threatening.

“I’m sorry,” Cole’s voice was as sharp as a knife, sending chills up the spine of all three other girls, and the students hiding in the doorway. “I don’t recall asking the opinions of sheep and shower scum. If you just want to bitch, go somewhere else. But when you have a quality source, come talk to me. Because even with a vision problem, I can see this situation clearer than you could ever hope to. Now run along, you sheep. We have class to get to.”

Chloé and Marinette quickly followed the taller girl, who used her height and threatening aura to part the crowd like the Red Sea. She sent Mylene scampering behind Ivan, while Rose and Juleka peered around his other side. Kim gave her a glare, only to back pedal when she leveled her glare on him. As she passed Lila, clinging to Adrien like a lame sloth, she stated,

“And Rossi, if you have problems with someone with an actual disability, maybe you should shut your mouth. After all, you seem to stick your foot in it every time you open it.”

She leveled a glare at the Italian, who seemed genuinely scared, but more infuriated than scared. What a fool.

“You’re just mad I outed you.”

“Foot, meet mouth.” She pulled her cousin along, Chloé following not far behind. The three girls walked by and went to the classroom with little struggle, settling in the back. Chloé sat down, she noticed Cole tapping away on her phone before pocketing said device, turning to her cousin with a wink. 

Class passed by with a tense air, whenever Cole spoke in class, Lila began to put on a show of waterworks. The rest of the class, sans Marinette and Chloé, would glare at her. As class was dismissed, the trio made plans to walk home together, she heard M. Damocles call out her name. 

“Great,” She turned to Chloé and Marinette. “You guys go on ahead. Head wherever, just text me when you get home safe.” She handed Chloé a folded piece of paper, which when unfolded, had a phone number on it. “I’ll see ya later.” She headed up the stairs to the principal’s office. The two girls waved goodbye to the third. As she disappeared, Chloé turned to Marinette.

“We should get going, I don’t know about you, but I’m losing IQ points just standing here.”

“Sure,” Marinette replied. They made it down the stairs before anyone else could catch up to them, and as they walked into the bakery Sabine looked up from the counter.

“Hello sweetie, hello Chloé,” Sabine smiled. Marinette had told her how much progress Chloé had made since she decided to be a better person. It made the woman proud. “How’d you like your surprise at school Marinette?”

Marinette smiled sweetly. “I loved it! I’m so glad Lettie is here. It’s been so long since I’ve seen her. Is Nonna coming by anytime soon? They haven’t seen each other in  _ years. _ ”

“She mentioned during her last phone call that she’d be back from Spain in a few days,” Sabine replied. “Why don’t you two girls head up? And take some snacks with you.”

“As much as I’d love to,” Chloé replied. “I have to go, my mother is headed out on a business trip and I want to see her off.”

Sabine and Marinette looked sadly at the girl. Despite accepting that she’d never get it, Chloé still held a bit of hope for her mother’s approval. 

“Alright, but take these for the road,” Sabine replied, handing the blonde a box of honey and lemon flavored treats. “And text let us know when you get home safe.”

“I will, bye Ms Cheng, bye Marinette!” She waved to the two Chinese women as she gladly took the box and left the bakery. 

“She’s come a long way these past few months,” Sabine observed.

“Yeah, even if she still has her moments,” Marinette replied, she joined her mother behind the counter, hugging her. Her mom smelled like the bakery, warm baked pastries and hints of butter and fruit. 

“How did class go for you and Cole today?” Marinette frowned, even as she felt Tikki nudge her in her purse.

“It was decent,” She admitted. “Lettie didn’t make a good impression with the class, but I don’t think she cares.”

“She never was one to care, what was that thing she used to say?”

“‘Those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind’,” Marinette recited. Sabine hugged her daughter again. After a truly rough day, Marinette had admitted how her classmates were changing, and it wasn’t for the better. Sabine had been livid, and her daughter just managed to calm her down. She trusted her daughter to come to her if there was anything she could do, and Marinette admitted she had one idea. Transfer classes at the beginning of the next school year. 

“Are you alright though?” Sabine asked, looking her daughter in the eye. “I know you used to really care about the class.”

“I still do to an extent,” Marinette admitted, tracing patterns in the flour on the counter. “But I’ve been wronged so much by them these past few months, that I don’t think I can ever return to the way things used to be.”

“And I’m glad you’ve come to that decision,” Sabine pressed a kiss to her daughter’s forehead. “You’ve listened to your emotions, and made the decision for yourself. I’m so proud of you.”

Marinette wanted to cry. She loved her mom so much, Sabine had been a lot like Marinette when she was younger, a people-pleaser, overworking herself, changing herself to fit others’ demands, it was when she met Tom that she finally began to work past those issues. Sabine knew a little bit of what Marinette was feeling, but Marinette wished she could tell her more. About Ladybug.

“I know Mom,” Marinette replied. She broke the hug reluctantly. “I’ve got to go get my homework out of the way.”

“Alright sweetie,” Sabine handed her a plate of croissants and cookies to eat. “Don’t forget to take a break or two.”

“Okay Mom.” she took the plate and went upstairs to her room. 

As she climbed up to her room, Tikki flew out of her purse. “Cole seems nice.”

“Yeah Tikki, I really missed her. I haven’t seen her in years.” The teen dumped her bag at her desk and sat in the chair. “I just wish she didn’t get a first hand look at Lila’s lies on her first day.”

“It was inevitable Marinette,” Tikki replied. “The longer Lila keeps lying, the more the class will turn against you. Since Cole is related to you, even if they don’t know it, Lila must consider her a threat.”

“She is,” Marinette replied. She typed out a message to her cousin on their discord chat. “We’ve been told we’re a lot alike, except I got most of the sweetness. She’s very good at planning. I think she’s more of a threat to Lila than I am.”

Suddenly there was a crash heard throughout Paris. Marinette looked up, seeing a cloud of dust rising from the ground and hearing the yells of panicked civilians. 

“Of course,” She sighed. “Let’s hope Chat actually does something this time. Tikki, spots on!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked, leave a kudos or maybe a comment. I always enjoy the feedback. :)


	3. A Visit, a Test, and a Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened on Cole's end, a chance meeting, and an akuma battle.
> 
> (Be warned contains Chat Noir/Adrien salt so if you don't like that, then might wanna not read, but it's not the focus of the chapter.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone had a great week. I actually worked a convention yesterday (after helping plan it since January) and one of the vendors was in a Marinette cosplay and my planning group went to IHOP after that. I recommend the cannoli pancakes if anyone gets the chance to try it.

Cole entered the principal’s office with zero fear. Her mind ran through the logistics of why she was called in. Behind the desk sat M. Damocles, looking overly prideful. God she hated arrogance like that.

“Mlle. Sullivan,” He directed. “Take a seat.” Cole sat stiffly and coldly in the seat. She wasn’t about to be intimidated by him, sneakily reaching into her pocket and turning her phone’s recorder on, making it look like a teenage angst move. 

“I have received numerous complaints within your first day,” Damocles began. “None from your teachers, I actually got some compliments from them, but it’s the other students.”

“The class has more of a mob mentality than I’ve ever seen from anyone in America,” Cole sighed. “Well I can prove to you that she’s lying,” She moved her phone to the older man, showing the picture on her phone, geotagged in the cafe. “Marinette and I were joined by Chloé today for lunch at a cafe today. We left the grounds and went to a cafe. When we left, Lila Rossi was telling her tall tales to the class. And I can assume someone reported me “faking” my vision problems, correct?”

“Yes.” She could see the wheels turning in Damocles’ head, he was piecing it together. 

“Well I can assure you, and my doctor, mother and grandpa can back me up, that my vision problems are quite real,” She pushed back her bangs and the eyepatch beneath. “And if anyone objects, they can feel free to take a look at my eye socket.”

Damocles looked quite uncomfortable seeing the eye socket, even if it were covered with gauze. Cole replaced her eyepatch and let her bangs fall back. “Still, your words—”

“Are the truth Monsieur,” Cole interrupted. “I’m not going to take this slander lying down. I can assure you, if the slander continues or escalates, I will not hesitate to fight back.”

“Mlle, I—”

“You have heard my backstory, so you know what I am capable of,” Cole crossed one leg over the other. “I will not allow this to continue. By the end of the year,  _ it will end _ . What that exactly means ...well, we’ll just have to find out, won't we?”

Damocles thought for a moment. “Very well, given how you presented your side, I will not punish you. But, should you get physical, I will not hesitate to punish you.”

“I will only get physical in self defense Monsieur, at which point it’s perfectly legal,” Cole stood, her annoyance turning to anger. “But very well. Is that all you need of me?”

“No. Have a good day Mlle. Sullivan.” Cole stood, shaking his hand firmly. A warning. 

“Good day to you too M. Damocles.” She spun on her foot and walked out. As she descended the stairs, she caught sight of one of her classmates.  _ The model, _ she remembered.  _ Agreste I believe, Nettie mentioned him. _

He was staring at her, borderline glaring, as she descended the stairs with conviction. Her phone dinged with two messages, likely Chloé and Nettie. She kept him out of her blind spot, not realizing she bumped into someone else. They hit the ground with a yelp.

As she sat up, she met eyes (or eye) with someone new. She was around Marinette’s height, maybe a hint taller, with shiny black hair in a bob and sharp brown eyes. She seemed to give off the same air of cold that Cole often did.

“Sorry about that,” the girl said. “I was not watching where I was going.”

“I’m in the wrong too,” Cole held out a hand to help her up. “I have a bit of a big blind spot. My name is Collette Sullivan.”

“Kagami Tsurugi,” The other girl replied. “You’re new here, aren’t you.”

“Yeah, today is my first day.” They shook hands, both quite neutral in feeling about each other. “I should get going, sorry for running into you. It was nice meeting you!”

“It was nice meeting you too,” Kagami replied with a nod. Cole waved goodbye and headed down the steps. She dropped her longboard down and skated off, feeling Agreste’s pathetic attempt at a glare on her back. 

She skated through the streets, weaving in and out of pedestrians with calls of “excuse me!” beforehand. As she sped past the shops and homes that lined the streets, her mind was caught in thoughts.

When she’d first gotten word that she’d be able to live in Paris with her mother, the first thing Cole had done was contact Marinette. She and her cousin had been thick as thieves before everything went downhill with her mother’s divorce and the custody battle that left her firmly in the US. Once they started messaging again, it was like nothing had changed, until one day.

Marinette had asked for a voice call, so they hopped on the voice channel. It was heartbreaking to hear all of the things that Italian bitch had put her darling cousin through, how her sheep of classmates had turned on her, how her crush told her to just be complacent. 

Oh how she hated being complacent. Patience was one thing, complacency was another. 

They talked through it, but Cole never let on that she was moving to Paris, she wanted to surprise her favorite cousin, and over time she heard small bits and pieces that light that had happened in the storm of Marinette’s life. Her childhood bully had apologized and was trying to make amends and be a better person, even asking for her help because she’s “the kindest person in all of Paris,” or how her parents had perfected a new recipe, or how she found the best inspiration for a fashion piece. Cole was happy Marinette found those happy moments, but she suspected that something else was being kept from her.

Meanwhile, she’d kept searching on what Paris was like. Naturally that led to the Ladyblog. It was decent at first. The design of the page and its original purpose weren’t too bad, but then she saw the interviews. Cole recognized Rossi from Marinette’s recollections, and even with one eye she could see right through the liar.

The strained smile, the strained compliments, everything.

Rossi hated Ladybug, that much was obvious, Cole knew the signs. 

The other topics Césaire tackled were just as bad. Viciously shipping Ladynoir, posting that kiss picture from an akuma named Oblivio, posting conflicting theories of Ladybug’s identity, supporting Chat’s continued pursuit of the spotted heroine despite her rejection of his advances. It made Cole sick. 

She respected Ladybug, that much was deserved. She fought so hard to protect Paris, and she wasn’t much older than Cole herself. She put up with a ‘partner’ whose loyalty depended on his mood, even letting people drown when a water akuma flooded Paris. Her service to Paris and her innovative plans were respectable.

Chat Noir was another story. He seemed to act like being a superhero was a game, constantly flirting, playing up how cool he was, cracking jokes at inappropriate times. If or when Cole met him, she’d probably have to ask Ladybug to prevent her from knocking Chat’s teeth in. 

Suddenly an explosion sent her stumbling, tripping her off her board and into a roll. Picking herself up, Cole looked to the sky where, just a block over, was a cloud of rising dust. Screams of civilians as they went scrambling for cover started to reach her ears. Her heart stopped, she knew that road.

She lived on it.

“Grandpa!” She realized, throwing down the board and speeding toward the road. Her mind ran in several different routes, thinking about all she knew about akumas from her research. 

  1. Someone had gotten wronged somehow.
  2. Hawkmoth had used this negative energy to transform the person into a supervillain.
  3. They can be very unpredictable and destructive. 

She rounded the corner to see the akuma hovering above the far end of the street. Clothed in a jumpsuit that looked like it absorbed all light, with pale blue skin and covered eyes, the female yelled,

“I am Nightify! All shall know the peaceful darkness and silence.” She held her hand and a ball of darkness appeared in it. She slammed it down and the whole area was covered in darkness.

Cole took stock of the street as her eyes adjusted. Civilians were running for cover, and her own home seemed silent. Grandpa was likely down for a nap. However, there was one man stuck behind a pile of trash cans. Quick as she could Cole ran over to the man, keeping silent once she saw some crying children become encased in deep purple crystals, putting them instantly to sleep, their faces warped into pained screams.

The man was older than her grandfather, likely of some Asian descent, with graying hair and brown eyes and clad in a red and white Hawaiian shirt. She skidded to a halt beside him, taking note of how he wasn’t startled by her approach, keeping his eyes on the akuma. 

“Sir, we have to get out of here,” She whispered. The man jumped, turning to look at her. So he hadn’t heard her come up. There was a metallic zipping noise overhead as Ladybug arrived on the scene.

“Ladybug!” Nightify called out. “Surrender your miraculous to me, or face my might.”

_ ‘Such a horrifying threat,’ _ Cole thought.  _ ‘Sounds like a stock line.’ _

Nightify made a staff from crystal and lunged at the heroine. Up above her, Cole heard something else. Chat Noir sat on the fire escape, looking like he had no intention of joining the battle. 

“Hey,” Cole called up. “Shouldn’t you be getting in there!?”

"No." The man next to her seemed to tense in anger.

"Why!?"

"Ladybug has to admit we're meant for each other first." Cole saw red. 

"What the shit you dumb cat!! Get your ass in there!"

"You don't know what it's like civilian, stay out of this." 

"Fuck you," She called back, flipping him the bird. She turned to the man. "Sir quick, follow me, my house is right here, you can take shelter there."

"Thank you young lady," he replied. She snuck him through the alley and around the back. She unlocked the back door and ushered him in. As he sat down, Grandpa came in.

"Letta," he asked. "Who is this?" 

"Grandpa, there's an akuma outside, you two need to get to the basement," Cole replied. A plan began forming in her mind. "Someone has to help. I have a plan."

Without another moment she ran up the stairs like thunder. She burst into her room and grabbed a ratty old hoodie and yanked it on, followed by a bandana mask from an old Halloween costume. She grabbed a baseball bat and ran to the roof access, peering out the cracked door. 

Ladybug was still fighting Nightify, but the tide was quickly turning against her. She needed a moment to breathe. She ran over to the shed on the roof, ducking to avoid being spotted. The door was easy to open, and as she slipped inside she found she had everything she needed. 

Tape.

Lighter.

Aerosol spray cans.

Firecrackers.

Glitter.

A strobe light.

A large speaker.

Bricks.

"Perfect." She set to work making her way through her plan. She just hoped Ladybug had enough time.

* * *

Ladybug was no happy camper. Nightify was tough, she made little noise and seemed to blend in with the darkness she created. With Chat laying around useless in the background she was on her own. 

Nightify landed a hit that sent her sprawling. "Now Ladybug. I will be taking your miraculous, then my night shall reign supreme!"

Around them the world exploded with light, followed by Nightify's screams. Ladybug opened her eyes in time to see several strobe lights centered on Nightify. There was the sound of footsteps and a brick came flying at the akuma’s face, knocking her to the edge of the rooftop. Ladybug stood, but was dragged behind a chimney by someone. 

“Don’t worry Ladybug, the cavalry’s here,” a voice said. She turned to see someone alarming. They were much taller than her, wearing a ratty hoodie, respirator, and a bandana mask over their eyes. They had a bat in one hand and a bag full of something else across their body. 

“A civilian?” Ladybug gasped. “You shouldn’t be here! It's too dangerous.”

“Ladybug!” Nightify yelled out, finally getting to her feet. 

“You needed the help! Chat Noir is being a piece of shit and not helping,” The figure sounded like they were frowning. “The only thing I can really offer is a distraction, but it should be enough. I think the object is that gem on her chest. If we can knock her out or pin her, we can get it.”

“I’m really not getting you to stay out of this am I?”

“Nope.” 

“LADYBUG!!” Nightify bellowed again. 

“Okay. Here’s the plan. You offer distractions, I go around and knock her down. You run up and grab the gem. Step on it or break it somehow, then I’ll purify it.”

“Yes ma’am.” The vigilante then maneuvered through the rooftop. Ladybug got into position to notice the figure throwing Nightify off using the strobe lights, glitter bombs made from aerosol cans, throwing bricks, loud music from a hidden speaker. At the final blow, they ran up and tagged the akuma on the back, and a faint hiss told Ladybug all she needed to know. Her temporary ally had taped a firecracker to the akuma.

What a day today was.

Ladybug took the moment to prepare before flinging her yo-yo out, wrapping it around the akuma’s arms as the firecracker started to die. To add insult to injury, the figure took a shot at the akuma’s knee with the bat, sending her to the ground. Ladybug leaped down as the vigilante grabbed the gem and broke it with the bat. The corrupted butterfly wormed its way out of the shards and the spotted heroine snatched it up. 

“Bye bye little butterfly,” She said as the now pure white butterfly rose from the yo-yo. She tossed the tool up in the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!” 

The sky cleared and all the damage was repaired. The bubbling mass ran across the akuma, reverting her to a very tired looking woman in her late-20s. Ladybug turned to the vigilante, only to find them gone. Well, so much for that, she’ll have to look for them later. She picked up the akuma victim and swung down to street level. 

* * *

Cole hid between the chimneys for several minutes, hearing Ladybug console the victim and yell at Chat for not helping. Serves him right. Using that time, she made her way back to her home, slipping in the trap door and down to her room. She hid the respirator and hoodie in her closet and ran down to her Grandpa. 

“Grandpa, sir! Are you both okay?” She skidded into the kitchen only to find the man was gone and her grandfather was alone in the kitchen. “Where’d he go?”

“He left soon after that ‘miraculous cure’ thing went through,” Grandpa explained, his creaky old New York accent mingling with the one he’d gained from living in the American south for several years. “He thanked you for getting him to safety, and for whatever stunt you decided to pull there.”

Cole looked down, Grandpa was one of the few people who could get her to feel ashamed for her actions. A large hand landed on her shoulder. “Just don’t do it again Letta, your old grandfather’s heart can’t take it.”

“Okay Grandpa,” she muttered. The older man pulled her into a hug. “Love you Grandpa.”

“Love you too sweetie,” he replied. “Now go get your homework done, no slacking kiddo.”

“Yes sir,” Cole replied cheekily. She kicked off her boots and headed up the stairs. With a simple nudge the door opened and she was greeted with a growl. On her bed, a full size with muted blues and purple sheets was her Dalmatian puppy Dottie, growling and barking at something in the sheets. “Dottie come.” 

The puppy quickly jumped off and ran over to her, licking her fingers as the teen knelt down. Dottie hadn’t been in the room a few moments ago, so she had to have just come in. “What’s wrong cutie? Did you find a bug again?” Dottie growled at the bed again. Cole sighed and went over to the bed. “There’s nothing,” her fingers ran into something in the bed, “here.”

She dug her fingers in and pulled something from the sheets. In her hand was a hexagonal shaped box with a Chinese symbol painted in red on the lid. “Hmm, what’s this?” She flicked the lid open and was shocked as a bright ball of orange light popped out, hovering and shining brilliantly. 

Cole jumped and dropped the box on the bed while Dottie yelped and ran over to hide in the closet. After a moment the light faded, revealing a small creature, maybe four inches tall, with large pointed ears, a bushy tail and purple eyes.

“Hiya, you must be my new holder,” it said while flying around her, appraising her. “The name’s Trixx.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if there were any medical inaccuracies, but leave a comment if you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!


	4. Semantics & First Meetings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, I hope everyone had a good week, mine's been crazy. 
> 
> As per usual, big thanks to @bigcheeseyboi on tumblr for being my beta reader on this. 
> 
> Also, there's gonna be a bit of a large info dump in the chapter, so if things start dragging on, I apologize in advance. This is the longest chapter so far I think. 8k words exactly. (Totally didn't edit it so it stayed at that nice round number)
> 
> BIG NOTE: I wouldn't try to add the Discord Numbers, I just made them up. I changed the last digit to a letter to avoid it happening but, I still wouldn't try.

Marinette landed on her bed in a burst of pink-red light, Tikki landing in the bed beside her. The pigtailed girl took a deep breath and _ screamed _ into her pillow. Why was her life like this? It was a whiplash roller coaster of good and bad, never giving her time to enjoy the good or work through her feelings of the bad.

Chat had been _ way _ out of line in the akuma attack today. He just sat there on the railing like a limp noodle, taunting her from the sides while she took on Nightify. 

_ “Just admit it Ladybug, we’re meant to be.” _

_ “All I ask is for you to go out with me Buginette.” _

_ “This would all be so much easier if you stopped fighting your love for me.” _

However, someone seemed to be listening to her prayers when aid arrived in the form of a civilian vigilante armed with glitter bombs and bricks. They’d worked so well together, the vigilante had caused the right distractions that it made defeating Nightify a breeze once she’d been given a chance to breathe. Granted, them bad mouthing Chat Noir was a bit much, at least she thought that until he’d decided to try and antagonize her for working with the vigilante instead of “admitting her love for him.” After that, Marinette fully agreed with her cousin, Chat Noir needed his teeth knocked in. 

“That was something,” Tikki said, summing up their situation in a simple sentence. She absently munched on a cookie when there was a knocking at the trapdoor. Before girl or kwami could react, a familiar ball of orange fur phased through the door.

“Hello Ladybug,” Trixx greeted the girl. “That was quite a fight you went through today. You did well given your assets at the time.”

“Trixx,” Tikki said from her spot on Marinette’s cat pillow. “What are you doing here?”

“Actually Tikki, the Guardian asked me to come borrow you for a moment, there is something the Guardian asked for your help with,” Trixx replied, moving down to the ladybug kwami’s side. “It shouldn’t be for long. Hopefully things work in our favor the rest of the day. Or night rather, the sun _ is _setting after all.”

“Okaaay.” Tikki looked to her charge. “Get some sleep Marinette, you need to catch up. I’ll be back if anything happens, okay.”

By now Marinette was beginning to drift off, nodding and mumbling an affirmative, snuggling down in her bed. The two kwami phased through the door and began flying over Paris. 

“What did Master Fu need me for?” She asked. Trixx sighed and replied,

“It’s a long story. We all know about Chat Noir’s actions recently, correct?”

“Yes?”

“Well, Master Fu heard this and when he also got wind of how Marinette was being treated, decided that there needed to be a new _ permanent _ addition to the team.”

“But all the current temporary holders are horrible. I mean, Chloé’s improved but she outed herself to Paris!” 

“That’s why Master chose someone new to team up with me. He asked me to come get you to help explain to the new holder what is going on, and to see if you like his choice.” Tikki hummed, a new permanent fox holder, one that wasn’t Alya. Had this been before everything started going downhill, Tikki wouldn’t feel as okay with it. But after seeing her chosen cry in what little sleep she got, enough was enough. 

The two kwami flew back over to where Tikki remembered the akuma appearing earlier that day. Trixx directed her to the open window of one of the houses, taking the lead and diving right in. 

When Tikki went through she took note of the room, not multi-layered like her Chosen's, but still a decent size. Off to one side was a teenager Tikki vaguely remembered from earlier in the day, Collette.

"Collette, meet Tikki," Trixx flew over to the teen and sat in her hair. "She's Ladybug's kwami."

"Hello Miss Tikki," Cole said, holding out a hand for Tikki to shake. "But you can call me Cole."

“It's nice to see you fully Cole.” Cole gave a confused look, scratching the puppy’s ears.

“Fully?” Tikki had the grace to look sheepish at least. She flew closer, letting the puppy sniff her. 

“Let’s just say my holder goes to the same school you do,” Tikki chose her words carefully. “I was with Ladybug all day and heard you throughout the day, but I only ever got a glimpse of you.”

“Alright,” Cole replied. She gestured between the two of them and the open box on the bed where the fox miraculous lay. “Well what is all of this?”

“According to the Guardian of the Miraculous,” Trixx began, recalling the man’s words. “You have demonstrated the qualities necessary to wield a miraculous. The qualities he’s heard you possess, plus the ones he saw earlier today when you joined Ladybug in battle, showed that you were the right choice to wield my miraculous, that of the fox.”

“Wait,” Cole thought for a moment. “The Guardian was the older man I pulled in here during the akuma attack, wasn’t he?”

Trixx held out a paw when Tikki tried to answer. “Talk us through why you think that is.”

Ah, so they were letting her demonstrate.

“Well first things first he didn’t run from the akuma today,” Cole began. “He kept his eyes on it. When I was yelling up to Chat Noir to get into the fight, he seemed angered and weary when he refused. I got the man around back and into the kitchen here and when I came back, the man was gone and Trixx’s box was here. If he is the Guardian, then he must have other miraculous in his possession, so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to guess that he had a kwami fly up here and drop the box off.”

“Wow,” Tikki breathed. “You’re pretty observant.”

“Well, I did grow up with a detective for a grandfather after all.” The girl gestured to the door, indicating the man was somewhere in the house. “That and I’m a bit of a people watcher.”

“And that’s why I was chosen to be your kwami,” Trixx added. “The fox miraculous gives the power of Illusion, specifically with the Mirage power. It is likely your proficiency for distracting the akuma narrowed down Master’s choice.”

“Cole, you’ve been given a tremendous responsibility here,” Tikki said. “A permanent miraculous isn’t something to take lightly. You have to be committed to protecting Paris and reclaiming the stolen miraculous.”

“I am,” Cole replied. “Ladybug needs help more so than ever. From my research footage, Hawkmoth is getting stronger and has an ally now in the form of Mayura. And my interaction with Chat Noir today showed me he treats this situation like a dating site rather than a responsibility. Ladybug needs an ally she can count on and if I was chosen to be that ally, then that’s what I’ll be.”

Tikki felt her heart _ soar _, someone finally got it! Cole saw the problems that most seemed to ignore. She took notice of things and seemed adept at working distractions. She’d be a great fox.

“But I have some questions,” Cole continued. “Where did you guys come from? What do we know and don’t know about Hawkmoth and Mayura? Why wasn’t Rena Rouge chosen to be permanent? What other abilities will I have?”

“Those are all good questions,” Tikki replied once she was finished. “I’ll take the origin and Rena ones. We kwami are as old as the universe. But thousands of years ago, a mage made the miraculous, which allowed us to interact with the physical plane. We are basically tiny gods, but to work the best, we are paired with a human who fits us the best.

Now the Rena question, is rough. Ladybug can chose temporary heroes, but the Guardian assigns permanent heroes. Initially, Rena was trustworthy, but recently she has betrayed Ladybug’s trust, she’s spreading lies as fact and writing Ladybug’s suspicion, which is really her own experience with the liar in question, as jealousy. So no, Rena proved herself unworthy of any miraculous, same with Carapace. Queen Bee likely won’t return much either, due to her exposing her identity to the whole of Paris.”

Cole winced at the situation. It hit way too close to home for her. Trixx patted her hair, hoping it would calm her. 

“We know that Hawkmoth is in possession of the butterfly miraculous, keeping its kwami Nooroo captive. Mayura has the peacock miraculous, which is bound to the kwami Duusuu. We haven’t sensed Duusuu in a while, so we think that her miraculous may be damaged in some way,” Tikki continued. “They’re both adults, so they’re more powerful than you teenage holders will be. Unlike you, they don’t have the five minute countdown before they de-transform after using their abilities. It’s likely because their bodies are more mature than yours, so you will have to use your powers wisely.”

“Adults have no timer. I do. Got it.” Dottie squirmed around on the bed, asking for tummy rubs, which Cole absently started giving. Trixx tapped her forehead to get her attention.

“And in addition to your Mirage you have heightened reflexes, strength, senses, and are near invulnerable,” He added. “But only inside the suit. And after you detransform I have to eat either berries or chicken to recharge my energy.” 

Cole nodded along, forming her next questions based on the answers she got. “What about this?” She lifted her bangs to show her eyepatch in a self-conscious manner. “Will I still be a good hero if I only have one eye? Do you want someone running around in the field half blind?”

Trixx flew up to her face, taking her cheeks in his tiny paws and lifting her head up to look him in the eyes. 

“Cole, kwami have existed since the birth of the universe, we were simply given the ability to interact with the physical world thousands of years ago. I’ve had several kits and known several other humans and holders who have had disabilities. The ability to be a good hero doesn’t come from the physical body, but from the soul. I had a fox who was completely blind, yet he one of my greatest Chosen. 

That’s not to say you won’t stumble at first, everyone does. Ladybug and Chat Noir did, but they’ve grown used to their abilities. This will be your first time transforming, no one expects you to be perfect.” Trixx smiled, wiping away a stray tear that had appeared in the corner of his chosen’s eye. “I have no doubt that you will grow into a fine hero.”

Cole sniffed, a small and wobbly smile appearing across her face. Her face grew determined. “Thank you Trixx. I won’t let you or anyone down.” 

Tikki flew up to join her fellow kwami in front of the new hero. “Now that we have that cleared up, we have just a few more points of interest to complete.” She flew over to Cole’s bag and pulled out a notebook and pen. “Every hero needs a costume. Ladybug and Chat Noir had very little time to decide on what theirs would look like since they had their miraculous for less than fifteen minutes before an akuma attacked. You don’t have that time crunch, so you could probably start by sketching out a design for your costume.”

“Okay,” Cole replied. She pulled the notebook closer. “I don’t want one exactly like Ladybug or Rena Rouge or Queen Bee. I don’t feel comfortable with just a plain bodysuit.” She began to sketch a body, adding a basic head. After a moment, she leaned back in her bed. “If my theory of who Rena Rouge was is correct, she won’t be too happy about someone else getting the Fox miraculous, and after what I saw today, I wouldn’t put it past her to try and steal it back. Is it possible to change the appearance of a miraculous? That way I can hide it better in civilian life and in the field.”

Tikki and Trixx looked to each other, seemingly having a silent conversation. After a moment Tikki nodded, “It will take a lot of energy, but based off the snacks you have here, we should have enough. What were you thinking?”

Cole began to sketch out a design off to the side. “I was thinking of an armlet. It would be concealed in my jacket, and the cuffs of my jacket would prevent it from falling off.” She finished the design of the armlet. It was a plain bronze band, save for what looked like a fox tail curving up, with a smaller one appearing to appear out of the bottom of the band. She added the design to the whole body. After a moment of thought, she added the original design of the fox miraculous to the choker on the design’s neck. “It would look like this in transformed state, I added a duplicate on the other arm and the original design as a diversion. If I get cornered by an akuma or an angry former holder, they’ll go for what they think the miraculous looks like, and by “adding” another band to the other arm, it’ll look like they’re just a part of the costume.”

“Excellent idea!” Trixx zoomed around his chosen as Tikki settled on her non-writing shoulder to watch her work. It seems creativity runs in the family. 

“I also saw in footage that Chat Noir can split his baton in two. Can I alter my weapon? Maybe give it a melee form for defense? Nothing too drastic, something like a baseball bat?”

“That would work,” Tikki replied. “I had a Ladybug who could use her yo-yo to form a sword or a staff. And there was an Ox holder who used an axe and a pickaxe.”

“Okay,” Cole replied, adding the outline of a bat to the page. Minutes passed as the design began to come into place. Longer and sharper bangs with hair shaped like ears similar to Trixx’s, fading from brown to black to orange to white. A sleeveless white bodysuit with a v-shaped neckline in black; a cropped orange vest with black accents and halves of a white semicircle; an orange belt lined with black slung across the hips, a medium sized bushy tail appearing out the back of the bodysuit. 

As Trixx and Tikki began to nod off, Cole added orange sleeves from the armlets that tucked into bracers just below her elbows, the bracers ended in black fingerless gloves and seemed to be made of a thicker material with grip material in the palms. She added what could only be described as orange chaps, which tucked into round top knee high boots. Shiny black material across the ankles, toes and the round top indicated possible armor. After a moment of thought, she added a sort of armor netting on the exposed shoulders and neckline, attaching it to the choker. Finally the bat coloring came last; black knob, off white bandage grip, a gradient to deep orange down the barrel, and a black end cap. Both end cap and knob were given the emblem of the original fox miraculous, further playing into the ruse.

“What do you two think?” Cole finally asked. Tikki floated over to the design, seeming to take in the design. 

“You chose darker shades than most,” Tikki replied. “Good choice.”

“Thanks, I figured since it’d be best to be a little less….visible. Since my powers rely on illusion, I don’t want to _ be _the distraction. Plus wild foxes don’t wear traffic cone orange.”

Tikki laughed again. “Fair point.” Trixx hovered over, popping a piece of spicy chicken from Cole’s dinner into his mouth. 

“It looks great Cole. Is that armor? You’re thinking ahead. Wait, you forgot the mask!” Cole and Tikki looked over the design.

“So I did,” Cole replied. She pulled a pencil over, sketching the outline of a mask like Ladybug’s. “Since I need my eyepatch, what if I just have my mask be the eyepatch? Some padding and no right eye hole in the mask.” She added color along the top and curving down the nose of the mask. “There! I got it!”

Trixx looked at his new chosen’s grin, he hadn’t had a permanent holder in decades, so it was nice to mentor one again. He zipped around, looking over the design one last time. “It definitely works with the style you already have. I like it! Creativity must run in you and your cousin’s family.” 

Cole blushed, rubbing her arm. “Thanks.” 

“Last thing in the creation phase,” Tikki drew a box on top of the page. “A name.” Cole hummed as Trixx flew up and burrowed into her hair. 

“A name,” She hummed again. “It should be short, memorable, easy to say. Any ideas?”

“Well,” Trixx’s voice came muffled from the nest he made in Cole’s hair. “Many of my past foxes have used words or titles similar to ‘red’ and ‘fox,’ some even just used the word for fox in a different language. Maybe start there?” 

“Sure.” Cole pulled out her laptop, going to several language sites. She decided against using any sort of language from Asia, she had a feeling that it wouldn’t go over well if she did. German was out, she couldn’t pronounce the word very well. French was out, since Rena Rouge had taken that opportunity. She wasn’t using Italian either, Rossi had ruined the words. Suddenly an idea popped in her mind. “Run this through with me real quick, I think I have an idea.”

“Lay it on us kit.”

“Okay,” she turned to a new page and began by writing the word ‘annoyance’. “So, my appearance as a permanent holder will likely anger certain people right?”

“Yep.”

“And another word for ‘annoying’ is ‘vexing,’” She drew a line to the center of the page, writing the word ‘vex’ in the center, before moving to the top right and writing ‘fox’. 

“In English a woman who is spiteful or quarrelsome is a ‘vixen’ which is another word for a fox.” She wrote the word below ‘vex’.

“And me appearing will likely be a topic of debate and turn friendships and relationships sour, even if I don’t mean to. It can expose how toxic some relationships actually are, just as Rena Rouge’s civilian actions were.” She wrote ‘toxin’ below ‘vixen’. “And to give credit where credit is due, since it’s not just me there.” She added “Trixx below ‘toxin’. “Add them all up and you get.” 

In smooth cursive she wrote, “Vexxin.” 

“That’s quite a process kit,” Trixx peered out.

“Too much?” Cole’s brows knit in uncertainty. She hoped she hadn’t overstepped any boundaries.

“No, just not a lot put so much thought into this. I love the name.” She felt the fox kwami snuggle in closer to her head. “Thank you.”

“Not many holders think of crediting us,” Tikki explained. “Some even denied that the miraculous even had kwami or tried to separate us from the miraculous. They didn’t last long, the Order saw to that.” 

“Okay,” Cole replied. “I thought I’d gone past a line or something.”

“Nope, just put a lot more thought into things than most.” Cole flipped to a new page in the notebook. 

“On that subject,” Cole replied, using a glittery red pen to write ‘Ladybug’ at the top of the page. “You’re her kwami Tikki, you know her identity and therefore, know her better than I do.” She didn’t notice Tikki’s nervous laugh. “What’s the best way to approach her? I know that she chose Rena, and prior to that Rossi claimed she was the fox hero with a faux miraculous. She’ll be suspicious of me, she won’t trust me. I don’t expect Chat to trust _ any _new holder, simply based off the footage I’ve seen, but Ladybug is the one to impress. Any ideas?”

Tikki thought for a moment. “Well, since I am her kwami, I could tell her that a permanent hero was chosen, and that you want to meet up. After all, I know your design, I can tell her what your suit will be. But you have to be up front with her, she’s had a lot of people conspiring against her recently and being two-faced, that’s what caused this whole situation. She doesn’t want to know identities per se, but you should be open with her. If Chat doesn’t automatically tag along with her, maybe show her your eye if you’re up to it, and explain the changes you’ve made to the design. She’ll appreciate having someone on her side.”

“Sounds like my cousin right now,” Cole sighed. “I’ll be open with her. After all she and my cousin have done, they don’t deserve what’s been happening to them.” Tikki beamed. “But I can’t guarantee anything with Chat Noir. I’ve seen how he acts and I’m definitely ** _not_ ** a fan. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was part of the reason the Guardian decided to give a permanent miraculous out. I can’t guarantee I’ll be so open with him.”

“That’s fair,” Tikki replied as Cole wrote the information down in black pen. “Let’s transform the miraculous, I have to get back to Ladybug soon, in case of an akuma.”

“Alright,” Trixx wormed his way out of Cole’s hair as his new chosen walked over to the windows in her room, shutting the curtains and checking to make sure her door was locked. As she held the miraculous out, Cole noted,

“Even if my mom and grandpa aren’t here, I locked the door and shut the blinds. The less attention we attract doing this, the better.” Trixx grinned, his new fox was hitting all the bases.

“Trixx, with me,” Tikki directed. “Cole, take off your jacket and hold out the arm you want the miraculous to fit best.” The teen did as directed, casting her crop jacket aside and holding up her right arm. 

The two kwami held onto the tips of the necklace. The energy in the room began to rise, just like the hairs on Cole’s neck, as the two began to say something in a language she didn’t know. It was a whistling, primordial tongue, likely kwami in origin. They began to glow, the light spreading along the fox tail necklace. A howling sound rose as wind seemed to appear out of nowhere. Cole closed her eye as the light began to grow and brighten. Tikki and Trixx, now pure pink and orange light, moved toward her. Cole fought every urge to pull away, keeping her arm steady. The two kwami moved in unison, molding the miraculous around her arm, stretching it and molding it to fit her design.

The molten miraculous was incredibly warm, but it didn’t hurt. As the kwami moved, she felt the energy around her crackle and shift like static. After what felt like an eternity, yet no time at all, the two kwami moved away, all indication of anything unorthodox happening ceased, and the miraculous began to cool. 

The two exhausted kwami hovered in the air for a moment before dropping like flies. Cole yelped and dove to catch them. She caught them just short of the ground, and without crashing hard. Dottie peered out from under the bed, whimpering. Cole stood and rushed over to where the food was. Tikki took a large bite of the nearest cookie, while Trixx grabbed a berry and popped it in his mouth. 

Cole slumped in her seat, trying to offer them as much comfort as she could. It wasn’t much, but she made sure they had things close by. After half an hour, Tikki was up and able to fly. 

“I have to get back to Ladybug, but I’ll pass on the news,” She said, ruffling Cole’s hair as the teen set Trixx in the spot he’d made previously in her hair. “She’ll be so happy to meet you. Hopefully it won’t be in the middle in the akuma attack.”

“Agreed, stay safe Tikki,” Cole replied, opening the window, the cooling evening night swept in. “Get some sleep, you and Ladybug deserve it.”

The creation kwami smiled, flying out of the window. She made the short trip to the Dupain-Cheng bakery, flying in through the cracked trap door. There she slumped down and drifted off to sleep in the pillows next to her still sleeping chosen. 

* * *

The next morning Marinette was awake at her first alarm. She got up and took a shower, deciding to put her hair up in a bun that day. Toweling off her neck, she went to her closet to decide what to wear that day. Her pink pants were dirty, all four pairs, so she grabbed something else. That something else happened to be a pair of pink overalls that ended at her mid thigh, paired with her regular shirt and jacket. 

“Morning Marinette,” Tikki yawned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. “Oooh your outfit looks great today, what made you mix it up?”

“I’m not sure Tikki, I just felt like a changeup for today.” She pulled her purse across her body and opened it for Tikki to fly in when she wanted. “What did Trixx need you for?”

“Something I think will be in the best interest for everyone Marinette,” Tikki replied, flying around the room. “Master Fu chose a new permanent hero to work alongside you.”

Marinette’s gut dropped. “A new hero?”

“Yes, she’s about your age and she wants to meet up sometime before the next akuma attack. Trixx wanted some help explaining everything to her. It was actually her idea to meet up. She said she wanted to introduce herself to you first, rather than meet you in the middle of a fight.” The feeling lessened, but was still present.

“Tikki...it isn’t Alya or Nino is it?” Tikki shook her head ferociously. 

“Actually, she’s that vigilante from yesterday!” The red kwami grinned from what could be considered ear to ear. “She seems to be taking this seriously, I think you two will get along great!”

Marinette smiled, she needed someone she could rely on 100% in attacks nowadays. 

“Marinette! Cole’s here!” Her mom’s voice carried up the ladder. Holder and kwami smiled at each other before Tikki flew into her purse. Marinette grabbed her bag and slid down the ladder. She ran into the kitchen and nearly crashed into Cole.

Today said cousin was clad in her cropped leather bomber jacket, fingerless gloves, ripped black jeans, a plain belt and boots, topped off with a galaxy print shirt with a black pocket on the left side and her silver star earrings with a moon shaped ear cuff chained to the left side. 

“I guess the only thing we’re serving for today is looks Nettie,” Cole teased, taking a bite of croissant. Marinette laughed, grabbing another two from the plate. 

“Agreed,” She replied, going over to her mom and giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Bye mom, love you.”

“Bye sweetie, bye Cole,” Sabine waved the two off. They said their goodbyes to Tom as they passed him and ran across the road to the school. The two cousins made their way into the courtyard, only to hear their names called.

“Marinette! Cole! Over here!” They saw Chloé waving them over to where she sat with Aurore and Mireille. 

“Hey guys!” Marinette dragged Cole over. They sat down at the table, placing their bags beneath them. “How’s it going?”

“Great,” Aurore replied, nudging Mireille awake to stop her from nodding off. The dark haired girl popped her head up with a snort.

“I’m awake.” The other four girls smiled, Marinette adding a small giggle. Mireille turned to Cole. “You’re new aren’t you? I’m Mireille.”

“Collette.” She smiled, ruffling her bangs, which were a bit neater and curlier than the day before. “I’m Marinette’s cousin.”

“Nice to meet ya,” Aurore cheered. “The name’s Aurore. So, you’re in Bustier’s right?”

“Yep,” Cole replied, somewhat deadpan. “Though I didn’t get a very welcome reception from anyone besides Mari and Chloé to be honest. But with what I heard about some of them, they should be glad a cold shoulder is all I’m giving them.”

Aurore wrinkled her nose. “It’s about the other new student isn’t it?” At the cousins’ nods she continued. “She tried to claim she could get me an in with a famous weatherman, but he died seven years ago. And I have a pen pal from Italy, says she’s nothing but a fraud.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Cole replied. “That scum convinced the class that I was ‘faking a vision problem’ as if she’s projecting her fraudulence on others. She can’t even keep her tinnitus lie straight. And believe me, I know permanent and long-term injuries.”

She tapped the eyepatch, lifting the bangs ever so slightly to reveal it. The two weather girls gasped softly, but thankfully neither asked what happened. They talked about everything and nothing for the next few minutes as people began arriving. Eventually they got to _ the _ topic.

“Did you guys see the akuma yesterday?” Mireille asked. “It was nuts!”

“Yeah,” Cole added. “I live on that street, it was intense.”

“Totally! Did you see the vigilante that helped Ladybug? So cool!” Aurore pumped her fist in the air, billion watt grin on her face. “But where was Chat Noir?"

Cole growled and scowled. “Off being a piece of shit. He just sat there on the fire escape, saying something about how he wasn’t going to help unless she agreed to date him. Told me to stay out of it because I’m a civilian. How she hasn’t just punched him I will never know.”

_ Oh believe me, _ Marinette thought. _ I’m getting close to doing just that. _

“I just hope they don’t have to do it again,” Chloé interjected, sipping her iced coffee. “He needs to get his head in the game, the mangy cat. He used to be so helpful.”

“Makes me glad I’m a lesbian,” Mireille sighed. “That and just...women...”

“Preaching to the choir Mireille,” Cole nodded. The two let out simultaneous ‘ay’s and high fived.

“And a bigger amen on the women part,” Chloé added. “That model from the fashion show a few weeks ago had me in a puddle.”

“The one in the red dress? Same,” Aurore agreed. The small lesbian colored enamel pin on the vest she wore that day gleamed with pride. Marinette was glad she’d slipped on her pan pride bracelets that day. 

“I don’t know,” Marinette replied. “The one in the emerald colored suit had me the second she walked out on the runway.” 

“Ya’ll are clearly missing the way the hostess looked,” Cole shot back. “What a queen.” 

They laughed together when a sixth person walked up.

“Oh hey Kagami,” Mireille waved. 

“Hello Mireille, do you mind if I sit with all of you?” Kagami asked. She pointed a thumb over her shoulder, showing Lila and her flock walking in. “I want to shelter myself from the storm of fools.”

“Then consider this your storm shelter,” Marinette patted the spot next to her on the bench. “Join us.”

“Thank you.” She sat down and turned to Marinette. “Marinette, I wanted to apologize for my behaviour at the ice rink a while back. I made a false assumption and acted rudely. I hope you can forgive me.”

“Sure Kagami,” Marinette replied with a light laugh. “I want to apologize for my behaviour at the movie premiere too, I acted out of line.”

“Me too,” Chloé interjected. “I put her up to it. I’m sorry too.”

Kagami looked between the two and smiled faintly. “You’re forgiven. I guess we’ve all made mistakes.”

“It’s easy to make mistakes,” Aurore said. “But it takes strength to admit and apologize for them.” The six girls chatted for a while until an annoying voice broke above the crowds.

“Of course I helped Ladybug yesterday, I am her best friend after all.”

Cole grew red and groaned. “Well, there goes the IQ of the whole street.”

“No way Lila that’s so dangerous!” Rose fretted. Several others voiced their worries to the preening Italian.

“No way because it’s not true,” Aurore murmured. The five girls turned to the blonde. “That vigilante was as tall as Cole and just as white. Besides, with how that one preens like an overzealous peacock, she would’ve yanked her mask off then and there.”

Cole shushed her, gesturing to her phone, where a small red light signalled she was recording the scene with audio and video. The rest of the table gave either sneaky thumbs up or devious smirks.

“Of course!” Lila went on, her voice carrying clear across the courtyard. “But it was all I could do to work with my best friend!”

“Why didn’t she give you a miraculous then? It would have been easier!” Someone said.

“She didn’t want a target painted on my back like that. She knows I’ve used it before when I was in Achu for long distance help.” Cue six eye rolls. The bell rang and Cole cut the recording. With a press of a button it was on her cloud and deleted from her phone itself.

The six girls waved their goodbyes to each other and went their separate ways. Marinette, Chloé, and Cole made their way to Bustier’s class first, claiming their spots and stowing their bags, making sure nothing was out of place. They continued to talk until the herd of sheep came in, at which point their voices became too loud. 

Thankfully, Mme Bustier came in before anything could happen for confrontation. 

* * *

Up in the rafters, Tikki and Trixx settled, watching the class. Both were tired from the night before, but it was only slight. Eventually Plagg found his way out of Adrien’s bag and up to the rafters. 

“What are you doing here Trixx?” He asked, green eyes settling on the dozing fox kwami. 

“Accompanying my chosen, duh.” Trixx took another bite of the cherry in his paws.

“You don’t have a chosen!” He whisper yelled. Thankfully the sound of the air conditioner drowned out their voices. 

“Master Fu assigned Trixx a holder last night,” Tikki crossed her arms. “After _ your _ chosen refused to fight. _ Again. _ Right in front of him.”

Plagg fumed. “You don’t think I’ve been trying! I’ve had to be the responsible one for the past two weeks, you know how I hate doing that! He just won’t listen!”

“Well now we have another person to keep him in line,” Trixx replied. “But it is nice to see you again Plagg.”

The cat kwami sighed, sitting down and taking an uncharacteristically small bite of his cheese. “Nice to see you too Trixx.” He looked down at the class. “I know Tikki’s kid, but which one is yours?”

“The one next to Tikki’s chosen, the girl with the leather jacket,” Trixx replied. “They plan on meeting up before the next akuma battle to run over things, get Ladybug used to her. It should be simple, they are cousins after all.”

“What name did the kid choose?”

“Vexxin,” Trixx replied. “Made a whole chart and everything to pin down the name and how to spell it. She really likes planning, it seems.”

“Fine by me,” Plagg added, noting Tikki drifting off between them. “Maybe this will be the wakeup call the kid needs.”

* * *

Class and the rest of the day went by without incident. Marinette was constantly joined by Cole until she dropped the shorter girl off at the bakery with a hug and wave to Aunt Sabine before skating off. 

Marinette had gone up and raced through her homework in record time once Tikki said that the new hero was not only a fox, but also wanted to meet that night at 10:45 that night. 

“I’m really nervous Tikki,” she admitted, putting her homework in her bag. “What if she’s no good? What if she decides the first thing to do is out herself?”

“She’s very observant, and thought through each step of creating her identity. You’ll love her Marinette! It’s why she asked to meet you before an akuma attack. She wanted you to know she was the real deal, that she wants to help you.” 

“Okay, we better get going. Tikki, spots on!” Once the transformation was complete she climbed out the trapdoor and zipped off into the night. Her thoughts swarmed like the ladybugs in the miraculous cure.

An ally sounded so good right now. Chat was really getting to her. She landed softly on the rooftop of the meeting place the kwamis had agreed on. Bluebell eyes searched the rooftop until there was the sound of boots.

“Hi Ladybug.” The spotted heroine turned to see her new ally crouching on the small water tower that the roof housed. They stood with an open posture, showing no threat to her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you Ladybug. I just didn’t want any civilians catching a glimpse ofk me before I could say anything to you. It’s nice to meet you.”

Ladybug smiled, they were courteous. “It’s nice to meet you too. Mind telling me your name?”

“‘Course ma’am, the name’s Vexxin,” The heroine, Vexxin, said as she straightened her vest. It gave Ladybug time to take her new teammate’s costume. Armored spots on the gloves, shoulders, chest and shoes. A baseball bat on their back. Spiky hair with bushy ears and a tail. More muted, natural colors. Sleeveless bodysuit under a vest and...god were those chaps? “Oi the chaps aren’t that bad! Are they?”

_ Oops she said that out loud hadn’t she? _

“Sorry.” The taller girl made a shoving gesture, making the fox miraculous at her throat jingle.

“It’s all good, I think that’s gonna be the lightest of criticisms I’m gonna get.” Vexxin hopped on top of the water tower on the building, patting a spot next to her for Ladybug to sit. The spotted heroine joined the fox, who pulled a bag out and got a binder from within. “Okay, so I made a list of things I thought would be good to discuss, but I know you have questions so I should probably let you go first.”

_ ‘She made a list? In an organized binder? For this meeting? She’s taking it so seriously.’ _ Ladybug thought. “Let’s see. How about we start off with something simple, just a security question if you don’t mind. What’s the name of your kwami?”

“Trixx, spelled with two ‘x’s.”

“Okay. Good so far, my kwami said she met you. What’s her name?”

“Tikki, she has a great taste in cookies by the way.” 

“Great, you’ve passed my security questions. Sorry, it was just to be safe.” Vexxin nodded understandingly. 

“Given the track record of foul foxes in Paris, I wouldn’t blame you for being cautious. I know I would be if I were you.” Vexxin pulled a granola bar out of her backpack. “Would you like one? I know it’s a bit late, and this place is a bit out of the way.”

Ladybug smiled. “Sure, thanks.” Vexxin hummed in reply, her own mouth full of granola bar. “You made your costume far different from mine or Chat’s. Did you draw it on paper first?”

“Yeah,” Vexxin replied with a swallow, pulling the paper in question out, showcasing a few crossed out designs. “I hate the feeling of plain one piece suits, no offense, so I made something a bit more loose. I added a bit of reinforcement around the places most likely to get hit, and steel toes for a bit of extra kick.”

“Great choice!” Ladybug gingerly took the paper, noting the crossed out designs and the notes scribbled in the margins. “Did you use any references?”

“Well the first thing I did was mute the color palette, the bright orange was a bit too much for me. Then I looked up pictures of foxes for coloration details, and finally I looked between the fraud and the previous fox to figure out what pieces _ not _ to use. Once I did that, I added the armored areas, as well as….well, let’s call it a miraculous defense plan, into my suit.”

Ladybug was over the moon. So much thought in the design! The thought processes! “And the bat?”

“Flute in a melee form. I have a bit of experience using a bat, and it’s a bit more threatening than swinging a flute at someone.”

“Fair enough. Did your kwami tell you anything?” 

“Pretty much everything. I even ran through it twice myself. Not gonna lie, it was a shock to see my kwami at first. I fell off my bed."

"Same! But I trapped mine in a glass vase."

"Then the next morning you forgot for a moment then got scared?"

"Yep!"

"Same!" The two teens laughed in a way that felt familiar. Eventually Vexxin looked down at her binder. "Okay, any more questions for me?" 

Ladybug, face red from laughing, put a hand to her chin. "Nope I think you answered them all. Though if I think of more I'll tell you. What questions or things do you have for me?"

Vexxin ran a finger down her list, be for stopping at one line. "Okay, have you gotten any ideas or leads about Hawkmoth and Mayura's identities?"

"I did at one point, but then he was akumatized, but aside from that, everything seemed to line up." Vexxin wrote that down.

"Alright, because if we can get in and take back those Miraculous, then it'll be easier to bring them to justice. Next question, if you patrol, do you have specific schedules or routes?"

"I have specific nights and routes I take, but I keep a rotating combination of which routes I take each week. Chat Noir should have some too, but whether or not he actually does them, I don't know." More pen movement.

"Jumping off that statement with another statement. I know you take this superhero business seriously, and I plan on doing so too. That being said, even if he is technically higher than me in seniority in this gig, I won't hesitate to call Chat Noir out if he's in the wrong. His past actions haven't inspired the same respect yours has, so don't be surprised if I'm a bit more tight lipped with info around him."

Ladybug sighed, not sure if she should be relieved or stressed. _ At least she has a good rationale. And she isn't pushing Ladynoir _. "That's fair, everyone has their boundaries. Just don't go after him first thing."

"Of course. Only defense, got it." Vexxin scribbled something else down. "According to Trixx, there's communicators in our weapons. However, they only work if we transform, correct?"

"Right."

"What if we make a Discord server? We could communicate without exchanging numbers and play it off as a roleplay server if any civilians see. We could have different channels for different topics too. What do you think?"

Ladybug thought for a moment. It could really help, and Discord servers were pretty secure. "Sure, we could try that. Is it already set up?"

"No, I wanted to get your approval first," Vexxin pulled out a smartphone from her bag, quickly tapping in the region for the server. “What do you want me to name it? ‘Super Secret Roleplay Group’?”

Ladybug thought for a moment and laughed. “Despite how funny that could be, how about ‘The Server of the Chosen,” we are chosen after all, and it sounds more like a D&D campaign, so it’ll keep us secret.”

“Perfect!” Vexxin tapped it in, taking a picture of the Paris skyline for a server picture. “Do you have your Discord ID? So I can make you an admin? Mine’s 5439 for reference.” 

“Sure,” Ladybug pulled up her Discord profile on her yo-yo. “5421.” 

“I’ll send a friend request first, it’ll be easier to add you to the server,” Vexxin tapped the send button. “What!?” She clamped a hand over her mouth. Ladybug looked up in alarm.

“What?” Vixxen showed her the phone.

_You already have _**_542y_** _saved as ‘_**_Saltinette_**_,’ would you like to save a duplicate?_

“What?” Ladybug repeated. She tapped in Vexxin’s number in her yo-yo, and got the same message.

_ You already have _ ** _543x _ ** _ saved as ‘ _ ** _Nick Fury’s Bat Wielding Skater Child_ ** _ ’ would you like to save a duplicate? _

Ladybug looked wide eyed at the fox hero in front of her. “Lettie?”

“Nettie?” Vexxin smiled, eye wide open. “Well, at least I know I don’t have to keep it a secret from you.” Ladybug breathed a sigh of relief. Of all the people in Paris, it was Cole sitting next to her. 

Cole, who would rather bite off her own leg than betray her family. Cole, who’d manipulate stingy old men into donating money to charity simply by feeding their egos. Cole who thought at least five to ten steps ahead at all times, but wasn’t opposed to playing things by ear.

“It’s you!” Ladybug cheered, pulling Vexxin into a hug. The fox themed heroine stalled for a moment, before embracing her cousin back. “I’m so glad it’s you.”

“Me too,” Vexxin muttered into the shorter girl’s shoulder. “I was so worried about having to cover this up to you, I know how much you hate lies. Funnily enough I told your kwami, that she “knows you better than I do,” which in some cases is true I guess.”

“But we can have our strategy meetings easier,” Ladybug thought. Vexxin nodded, adding her cousin to the admin panel of the chat. “We can just call it a sleepover.”

“Awesome, also you should come over after school tomorrow, Dottie misses you.” Ladybug cooed, momentarily distracted by the thought of the ten week old puppy she’d been spammed with pictures of. 

“Only if our first meeting is at my place,” Ladybug shot back.

“Deal Freckles.”

“So it is Patchy.” The two started laughing, Vexxin stowing her binder and phone in the backpack and locking it. 

The sky above them was clear and the night was warm. It reminded Ladybug of the times when Vexxin came over when they were little, they’d look through her old telescope and make up stories of constellations, before falling asleep on the balcony and waking up soaked in dew the next morning.

“Hey Buggie? Guess what I got.” Vexxin shoved her hand in the side of her chaps, burying it down to her elbow. “Pockets.”

“You dork.” They were laughing again. While there was a hint of something different, it felt like nothing had changed. “Honestly I should have known it was you yesterday with the bat and the bricks alone. You loved throwing those things when you lived in America.”

“Yeah, I had a suspicion about you when we were messaging before I showed up, and when Tikki claimed to be at the school.”

“I saw her go up to the rafters today at the beginning of class, but I didn’t see Trixx.”

“Of course not, Trixx went up while we were still talking to you-know-who.” Ladybug got confused before realizing that she meant Chloé. The senior heroine laughed, nodding that she understood. “We can take care of the rest of our notes and stuff tomorrow if you want. Wanna just hang out?”

“That sounds nice, I can show you how to get up the Eiffel Tower.” Vexxin lit up and bounced on the metal of the roof.

“Okay, let me just go drop my backpack off,” Vexxin hopped over to the next building. “Be right back!’ She ran into the night and Ladybug felt a joyful energy arise.

Elsewhere in Paris, a noxious purple and black butterfly found its way into an object, a purple mask appeared across an angry face,

“Greetings Idealizer, I am Hawkmoth.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. If you liked, leave a comment or a kudos. See ya next time!


	5. Things Start Going Bad (And They Will Get Worse)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this episode: Ladybug's first team up with Vexxin, Lila is a bitch (but what else is new), Chat gets a wake up call (but will it stick?), Aurore makes a group chat, and the Gays(TM) stick together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Spooky Month everyone! 
> 
> Special thanks to @bigcheeseyboi on Tumblr for beta reading this for me!

Civilians ran down the streets as an akuma strode purposefully toward the Eiffel Tower, throwing balls of technicolor light at groups of civilians. The lights would fade and the citizens would be posed in horrible caricature that were more taken out of a travel magazine than real life. Horrid fashion, terrible accents and over-the-top acting that seemed just  _ insulting _ and unnerving with wide plastic smiles on everyone's faces.

“Greetings Paris,” The akuma raised her arms once she got to the base of the Tower. “You have failed to achieve a single one of my expectations! Bring me Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous or be forced to fit  _ my  _ molds!”

She raised her hand and slammed it down into the pavement, sending a wave of magic over the area. The area seemed to come alive, grass overly bright, trees without a single empty spot, flowers in too-thick bundles. Any civilians in the area were caught up too, becoming just as staged and false as their surroundings. Boring royalty-free music seemed to come from nowhere, further enhancing the false image.

Just beyond the akuma’s vision Alya huddled around the corner, livestreaming and recording the entire thing. She was going solo on this one, her boyfriend had gotten food poisoning earlier and her bestie Lila was out setting up a charity banquet outside the city. She thought about calling Marinette, but remembered just how much of a bully she’d been to Lila. 

The reporter angled her camera at the akuma, Idealizer she’d called herself, saying to her audience, “Hey Buggies, this is the Ladyblogger coming to you live from an akuma attack over at the Eiffel Tower. The akuma appears to possibly be a disgruntled adult due to a failure of their expectations. Oh there’s Chat Noir!”

She leveled the camera at the leather clad hero, who was perched on the edge of a building, looking as if he had no intent on moving. “He must be so ready to fight after missing out on that fight with Nightify yesterday. My best friend Lila Rossi actually was the vigilante that Ladybug teamed up with! How cool is that!”

A metallic whirring noise was heard overhead as Ladybug zipped onto the scene, looking much less troubled than she had the day before. Alya pulled the camera up to see the spotted heroine land on the stone edge of the other building. It wasn’t picked up on her camera, Alya could hear Ladybug say to Chat Noir,

“Are you actually going to cooperate tonight?”

“I don’t know, are you actually going to stop fighting your love for me?”

“Can’t fight what doesn’t exist Chat.” Ladybug sighed. “Just stay out of the way if you’re not going to help.”

Alya frowned, Ladybug was being just as difficult as Marinette was being. They just needed to stop denying things, Ladybug’s love for Chat Noir and Marinette’s bullying and jealousy of Lila. That’s it! Lila can talk about it to Ladybug. Marinette would listen to Ladybug, and what better way to convince her to admit her feelings than to get her bestie to convince her! Then Marinette will apologize to Lila and she can be back in the friend group and Ladynoir can be canon! It’s a perfect plan!

Meanwhile, Ladybug was fighting Idealizer, dodging and deflecting her blasts while trying to figure out the item. As the fight wore on, the idealized victims began moving towards the fighting pair, but their ‘perfect’ poses made it hard to do, several fell over, but a few seemed able to move quite easily. 

Alya refocused on Ladybug, noting how Chat just kept pressing valiantly on to get her to confess before he helped her.  _ Good ultimatum, _ Alya thought.  _ She better do it quick, or else they might get her miraculous. _

The blogger watched as one of the faster victims got to Idealizer first. However, instead of going after Ladybug, they approached Idealizer like predators.

“What!? No! Go after Ladybug!” Idealizer yelled, leveling her finger at the heroine in question. The minions encroached threateningly on her and Alya noticed Ladybug seemed oddly calm. 

“Now!” The heroine yelled, seemingly to no one as Idealizer swung at the closest minion. It vanished in a puff of orange smoke and a new person reappeared above Idealizer, dropping down and slamming into Idealizer. Something connected with a loud and heavy  _ tink _ sound. Idealizer dropped like a stone and Ladybug quickly grabbed something from the Akuma’s belt. It was a travel magazine.

The pigtailed hero ripped the magazine in two and swung her yo-yo at the emerging akuma, releasing it as tossed the magic tool in the air, calling the miraculous cure. The swarm of ladybugs ran over Paris, restoring citizens and scenery. The dark energy vanished from the woman to reveal a middle aged woman dressed in what had to be travel clothes.

“Where am I?” The woman asked, clutching her head. Alya was without words as Ladybug turned to someone and gave them the standard fist bump. It was a fox hero.

And it wasn’t Alya.

“Pound it!” The two heroines cheered. Alya could hear Chat hissing in anger from the rooftop as the new fox approached the woman, hand outstretched. 

“Are you alright ma’am?” She sounded foreign, and towered over Ladybug by a hefty amount of centimeters. 

“I-I think so,” the woman replied. “I’m so sorry. Nothing was going right on this vacation, everything was falling apart. My whole vision for the perfect vacation for my family was ruined.”

“Hey, it’ll be alright,” the new fox replied as Ladybug helped the other citizens up. “Vacations aren’t about the place being perfect, it’s about the memories you make. Who knows, it may not be the ideal trip in the moment, but it could become the best vacation you’ve had, maybe even becoming a treasured memory.”

“You’re right,” the woman nodded. Someone called her name, and she turned and ran to a group of people, likely her family. “Thank you Ladybug, and thank you…?”

“Vexxin,” the new fox replied, waving goodbye. She looked down at the fox miraculous, probably giving her a beep of warning. “Be right back Ladybug, gotta recharge!” 

“Okay Vexxin,” Ladybug replied. Vexxin took a running leap up the buildings and disappeared from sight. Chat Noir, Alya noticed, hadn’t moved from his spot, until a few minutes passed, then he jumped down. He grabbed her arm and tried to yank her away. Probably to talk.

Alya didn’t notice Ladybug’s stern words or the negative comments in her comment feed, too angry for words. She’d been replaced. Ladybug chose a different fox! Alya hadn’t done anything wrong! Hot tears sprung in her eyes and she cut the livestream. 

She had to talk to Lila.

Lila would know what to do. Lila was besties with Ladybug, she could convince Ladybug that she made a mistake. Alya was the fox, she deserved it! Unbeknownst to the reporter as she stalked into the night, a single green eye watched her go, recording her rantings as a small fox kwami munched on a cherry, eyes drooped in disappointment.

* * *

Ladybug sighed in relief as Vexxin finally returned, miraculous fully recharged. The civilians were all okay, so most of them had gone home, thanking Ladybug and congratulating her on a new ally, saying she’d done a good job. Some of the small children were overjoyed to see heroes in general, and others were asleep on their feet, giving her sleepy waves goodbye as they left with their families. 

Vexxin’s energy was practically tangible as she bounced at her teammate’s side, fluffy tail twitching and ears perked. Her vest ruffled in the faint wind, as did the poofs of her bishop sleeves. They watched the civilians wander from their spot partway up the Eiffel Tower.

“Is this what the cleanup is usually like?” Vexxin asked. Ladybug held out a shaking hand. 

“Somewhat,” Ladybug replied. “Sometimes the akuma victims may need to be treated for shock, it’s a side effect of the magic. But due to the miraculous cure, there’s no property damage.”

“That’s good,” Vexxin replied. “I’d hate to see the insurance costs here otherwise, and all that devastation that would have happened.”

“It still leaves its mark though,” Ladybug muttered, watching a mother carry a child on her shoulders. She felt a hand on her shoulder, gentle and loose.

“That’s why we’ll stop Hawkmoth,” Vexxin replied. “We won’t let this be their whole lives.”

“Right.” There was a heavy thunk of boots. The heroes turned to see Chat Noir behind them, looking livid. 

“Who are you?” Chat leveled his gaze on Vexxin. The fox hero didn’t shy away from his glare.

“The name’s Vexxin,” she stated. He seemed to judge her a moment before pushing her away from Ladybug. “Hey!”

“My Lady you didn’t need to borrow the fox from the Guardian, all you had to do was admit we were made for each other and I would have helped you.” Ladybug scowled at his condescending tone.

“Chat it’s your job to help no matter what. Paris should come first. I’ve told you multiple times I don’t feel the same way. And Vexxin isn’t temporary. She’s permanent, Fu gave her the miraculous yesterday.”

“But why!? We were doing just fine,” Chat crossed his arms. “Until you kept denying our love.” Ladybug sighed, putting her head in her hands. Vexxin noticed and stepped in.

“For someone who proclaims you were doing just fine, you sure don’t contribute to the work. Especially considering I had to jump in yesterday.  _ As a civilian with no powers. _ ” She advanced on him, using her extra height she had on him. The cat seemed to gain his common sense back and began to back away. “Even just now, you sat back while Ladybug and I executed a plan that we made  _ specifically because _ you can’t be counted on to fight.”

“Yeah but—” 

“But nothing! Your inaction has caused the Guardian to take the risk of making a miraculous permanently active! If we follow the logic, the next step he’d take would be taking  _ your  _ miraculous,” Vexxin jabbed a finger into his chest, sending him stumbling. “So either sort out your priorities or be prepared to be permanently benched.”

“Are you threatening me!?” He bared the slight fangs his transformation gave him. Vexxin gripped her bat and bared her own sharpened canines.

“It’s a  _ promise, _ ” She growled. “Because even though I don’t have full vision, it doesn’t take 20/20 vision to realize you are riding that line like a cowboy. And if you don’t get off, _ you’ll be thrown. _ Shape up or you’re done.”

“Rena was a much better fox than you’ll ever be,” Chat replied as he turned with a huff and began to leave.

“Given your track record, I don’t think you’re in a position to make those judgements,” Vexxin replied back. Chat vaulted off the Tower, and both girls watched him go. Vexxin sighed, turning to Ladybug. “Sorry about that Ladybug. I didn’t go overboard did I?”

“A little bit. I don’t know how close he could be to that point, but it may do him some good to scare him,” Ladybug replied. Nearby a clock chimed the half hour. 

“It’s getting close to midnight,” Vexxin sighed. “We should head home.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow.”

* * *

The next morning went much like the previous. Marinette woke up, chose an outfit (this time her hair held back partially with a ponytail, a cream and pink striped half sleeve shirt over a white dress shirt with its collar and the sleeve hems folded over the top, a dark blue skirt and matching flats), and came down to meet Cole, who wore her standard jacket, but changed to a purple tie-dye shirt, light jeans, and black sneakers. Marinette almost misses the oranges and pinks of the simplified lesbian flag on her wristband.

They get to school just as early as usual, joined by Kagami, Aurore, Mireille and Chloe. Today’s topic: Vexxin.

“All I’m saying is,” Aurore sighed. “She looks very pretty and I’m a very weak lesbian.”

“I love the design she chose,” Mireille added. “It’s really different from the rest of the heroes. I wonder if she’s here to stay?”

“I hope so,” Chloe replied, sipping her iced latte. “Given how Chat has been, they need a new person.”

“Aren’t you upset that you weren’t chosen?”

“Kind of, but if I’m honest, it makes sense. I did out myself to the entirety of Paris.” She sips the latte again. “Plus, we don’t know if they’re permanent or not. Either way, we know something happened. It’s not Rena Rouge who showed up.”

“Speaking of heroes,” Kagami interjected. “Take a look at this.” The five others crowded around the fencer’s phone. 

**BREAKING: Fox Miraculous Stolen!**

**By Alya Cesaire**

_ “Jesus fucking Christ,” _ Cole growled. Marinette smacked her on the arm.

“Language.”

“English.” Cole looked closer at the article. “Obviously Cesaire is a Rena stan. Stans usually get like this. And given her quality of “reporting” is now more of a tabloid rag, I wouldn’t put any stock in it.”

“You’re not wrong,” Aurore conceded, taking a bite of the muffin she’d brought. She turned to Mireille. “Betcha twenty Rossi claims that it’s her.”

“Alright, thirty says she claims she helped Ladybug chose the fox.” Chloe looked between the two before interjecting,

“Thirty-five says she says she helped pick and then says Ladybug went against her choice.” Mari and Cole looked between their friends, Cole all too aware of the armlet sitting on her bicep and the kwami in her bag. Marinette, despite knowing about Lila’s fake miraculous, was still worried. They’d been so tired and stressed last night that Cole hadn’t told her where she hid the miraculous. She typed out a message on her phone,

_ Stitches-and-Swatches; _ _ Where did you put it? _

_ Cat-with-a-bat.jpeg: _ _ One word: decoy.  _

_ Cat-with-a-bat.jpeg: _ _ Two more words: Tactics meeting. _

Marinette looked to her cousin to see Cole gripping her right arm, right where one of the armlets on her costume would be. 

_ She changed the form of her miraculous.  _

The pigtailed girl nodded to her cousin, who grinned cheekily. There was a tangible shift as Alya thundered in.

"Oh this is gonna be good," Chloe jeered. Cole nodded, hitting the record button on her phone.

"LILA I NEED DETAILS!!" The teen in question jumped. Marinette guessed she thought her lies had been found out. "The fox miraculous! Do they have any leads on who stole it!?"

"Babe calm down," Nino soothed. "Breathe, we don't want an akuma to come."

"If it means getting the opportunity to reclaim that stolen miraculous then bring it on!" Alya yelled. Cole turned to Marinette wide eyed, if her theory was correct, she was looking at Rena Rouge, a very angry one at that.

"That fox is only temporary," Lila lied. “I told Ladybug that she wasn’t a good candidate, but she insisted.”

Aurore and Mireille handed the Euros to a conflicted Chloe, who handed the money right back, muttering how she didn't really need it.

Alya’s anger seemed to die a little bit. “Why didn’t she call on Rena Rouge then!? She has experience with the miraculous.” Lila seemed to flounder once again.

“Ladybug said she went to Rena’s house and she wasn’t there,” came the lie. “She looked all over and couldn’t find her.” Marinette rolled her eyes, as did Cole. Their kwami glared out of their holders’ bags. Trixx looked to Tikki who shook her head.

“Why didn’t she use a different miraculous then?” Alya pressed, anger turning icy. “The fox miraculous is Rena’s, even if she doesn’t get to keep it.” 

“What a joke,” Aurore muttered to Mireille, who nodded in agreement. At that point, Adrien walked up, not putting up a fight when Lila clung to his arm like a brain dead squirrel. 

“And ring the doorbell because the doormat’s here,” Cole added over her shoulder, recalling the model’s propensity for letting people walk all over him and do bad things to those he called ‘friends.’ “Is he the punch line? Or can I make him be it?”

“No punching models,” Marinette scolded. “Not yet at least.” The other four girls noticed the conditional ‘yet’ and grinned. They’d watched this whole thing go down for weeks, it was about time something was done about it. Aurore and Mireille wouldn’t have the right motive to lash out until now, Chloe was known to be cruel (even if she was trying to change), and Kagami was “just Adrien’s fencing friend.” None of them would have a justifiable motive until now.

“I tried to tell her that,” Lila continued. “But she said something about how it was her choice first and foremost. I think she’s mad at me.”

“ _ I think she’s mad at me, _ ” Cole mocked in English. Thankfully no one who was fluent enough to understand was one of Lila’s sheep. Earlier that week she’d proclaimed she was fluent in five languages, but never listed them, but definitely saying ‘yes’ to fluency on more than the three needed to round out her lie. Spanish, Portugese, Japanese, English, Arabic, Mandarin, Chantonese, Russian, German, Swahili, ASL. Any language, she claimed fluency. Cole switched to Spanish,  _ “I wanna make s’mores when they burn her on the pyre.” _

Aurore responded in German,  _ “I’ll bring the chocolate.” _

The girls laughed quietly as the bell rang. They parted ways and headed to class. Alya’s anger was tangible throughout the entire class, so it was no surprise that by lunch she’d been akumatized.

She looked exactly like Rena Rouge, however all of her clothes had gone black and purple. The akuma ran through the city, sending out destructive blasts and explosive illusions from her flute. “BRING ME THE FALSE FOX!! I HAVE TO RECLAIM THE STOLEN MIRACULOUS!!!”

The cousins dodged destruction as Rena Rage grabbed Lila, proclaiming that Ladybug would come to rescue her ‘best friend’ and she can claim the miraculous. The duo slid into a back alley without being spotted.

“Not surprising,” Cole sighed. “I’m just surprised it took her this long.”

Marinette opened her bag for Tikki to fly out. “Honestly it’s just disappointing. She’s become so delusioned by lies and pride. Tikki, spots on!”

“I’ll gladly show her some humility. Trixx, let’s pounce!” The two superheroes jumped onto the roof and began running towards the akuma. As they approached where Rena Rage loomed over the Eiffel Tower, a perfect spot to see them approach and the last known sighting of the fox miraculous, Chat Noir landed and ran alongside them. 

“Hello Chat Noir,” Ladybug greeted tensely. 

“Hello Ladybug.” Both Ladybug and Vexxin looked between each other, noting the lack of flirting. “What’s the plan?”

“We’re going to give her what she wants,” Ladybug replied. They hid behind a group of chimneys. 

“What?” Chat gaped. “You said last night she was permanent!”

“I know what you’re getting at,” Vexxin interjected, putting her annoyance at Chat aside for a moment. “You want me to make an illusion of me going up to surrender my miraculous to her. She’ll grab at it and it’ll vanish, giving you the opportunity to attack. We can either have me cast it over one of you, or just over a blank space.”

“Right,” Ladybug replied. “She is dead set on reclaiming Vexxin’s miraculous, and getting ours in the process.”

“I’ll do it,” Chat Noir offered. At the looks he got, he continued, “You were right. You both were, I haven’t been a good hero in a long while. It’s the least I can do to regain your trust.”

The cousins looked between each other, it was a stretch, and they had no way of guaranteeing it, but he was willing. 

“Alright,” Vexxin and Ladybug agreed. 

“We need to get to a good position,” Vexxin added. “Split up. I can cast the illusion on you, but you have to get to a good place first.”

They snuck past the still rampaging Rena Rage, who flung exploding illusions around like candy while a tied up and gagged Lila dangled from the side of the railing. When they were in position, Vexxin whispered, “Mirage.”

The glow was soon replaced with a swapped Vexxin and Chat Noir. “There,” Vexxin said in Chat’s voice. “Just don’t do anything stupid. Keep to the plan.”

“Okay,” Chat replied with Vexxin’s voice. The two other heroes ran off to their positions while the disguised Chat hopped over the chimney he was behind. Making himself look less used to his physical abilities than he was, he made sure that Rena Rage could see him.

“YOU!” She yelled out, firing out illusion cannon balls at him. He stumbled and dodged as he approached. He held his hands up in surrender, calling up.

“Relax! I’m here to admit everything!”

Before he could blink, Rena Rage was on the ground and looking at him with a glare, her eyes flickering to the ‘miraculous’ on ‘her’ chest. 

“I admit it,” he continued. “I stole the miraculous. I wanted to be a hero so bad that I took it. But I’m confused, you’re a civilian, why do you care so much? Were you a Rena fan?”

“Fan!?” Rena Rage growled. “FAN!? I  _ WAS,  _ no I  _ AM  _ Rena Rouge! Ladybug chose me! You don’t deserve that miraculous because it belongs to me!” ‘Vexxin’ dodged Rena Rage’s clawed swipe at the illusion miraculous. She powered after ‘Vexxin’ determined to get the necklace. 

Meanwhile, Ladybug and ‘Chat’ moved into position. “He’s telling her what she wants,” ‘Chat’ noted. “He’s getting her attention off us, but she’s in a frenzy. She won’t be easy.”

“We have no choice,” Ladybug replied through her communicator as ‘Vexxin’ dodged Rena Rage. “Get ready.” The two fighters were moving into position. “Now!” 

‘Vexxin’ let Rena Rage grasp the miraculous and rip it off as the two other heroes jumped towards the akuma. In a puff of orange smoke, the illusion broke to reveal Chat where Vexxin was, the ‘miraculous’ replaced with Chat’s bell. Before Rena Rage could react a large metal bat hit her on the back of the head, sending her toppling as Ladybug’s yo-yo tied her up. 

Rena Rage snarled and squirmed as the real Vexxin pinned her down. Ladybug frowned in shame as she strode forward, yanking the little foxtail phone charm off Rena Rage’s neck and snapping it between her fingers. The butterfly squirmed out and straight into the waiting yo-yo. 

“Bye bye little butterfly,” Ladybug bid the purified butterfly farwell. She tossed the yo-yo in the air and cast the miraculous cure. As the swarm went around, Vexxin pointed to her miraculous and sped off as it beeped.

Rena bubbled and faded to Alya, who shook her head and sat up. “What happened?”

“Alya,” Ladybug replied. “We need to talk. Chat, would you go retrieve Lila from the tower? She’s still up there.”

* * *

After a few minutes Vexxin returned, not sparing a glance at the reporter, who sat dejected and not looking forward to the conversation. Chat had returned Lila to the ground before taking off, returning to Ladybug and Vexxin.

“Alya,” Ladybug stated grimly. “You are in very big trouble.”

“I kno-”

“No, you are going to listen and listen only.” Ladybug’s hands went on her hips. Chat stood behind her and Vexxin loomed threateningly with her bat in the background. “You have shown me time and time again that you are no longer trustworthy with a miraculous. Today’s events only confirmed this. You have betrayed my both in and out of my mask.

Your blog has become nothing but gossip and unsubstantiated stories. Your pride has gotten in the way and has made you into someone untrustworthy. Vexxin wasn’t chosen by me because I can only  _ loan out _ miraculous. Vexxin was chosen by the same person who chose me and Chat Noir, she’s permanent. She’s staying.”

Before today I wasn’t sure if I could trust you with a miraculous again but today you not only proclaimed a miraculous was stolen, but you proclaimed that you were Rena Rouge and that the fox miraculous belongs to you.” Alya looked near tears. “You put not only yourself, but your entire family in danger. I wish I could say I’m sorry Alya, but I’m not. You brought this upon yourself.”

“Ladybug please,” Alya begged. “I’ll do anything, I’m begging you.”

Behind Ladybug, Vexxin glared at the reporter. Chat looked uncomfortable, putting a hand to his neck. Alya caught their gazes over Ladybug’s shoulders. Vexxin held no pity, but Chat seemed to feel sorry for her. 

“No Alya,” Ladybug stated. “From now on, Rena Rouge  _ and  _ Carapace are permanently  _ retired _ .”

“But Ladybug, I-”

“Get back to school Alya. We’ve wasted enough time here as is.” Ladybug tossed out her yo-yo and zipped away. Chat followed not far behind. As Vexxin turned to leave, she heard Alya spit an insult at her back,

“You, you did this.”

“No, this is on you, traitor." The fox jumped down and disappeared, leaving the steaming reporter to make her way down to the streets..

* * *

When Marinette got back to school, she felt a sense of danger. Cole skidded to a stop next to her but it still didn’t go away. As they walked up the stairs, the feeling intensified. Behind them the door slammed shut. They spun on their heels to see Lila Rossi standing there.

“What do you want?” Cole spat, Marinette scowling beside her. Inside Cole’s pocket, she hit the record button for her phone, connected wirelessly to a pinhole camera in her collar.

“Surprised to see me?” Lila said sickeningly sweet.

“More like we expected you to be lying through your teeth as per usual,” Marinette shot back. Bile rose in her throat and she wanted to vomit.

“Oh I will be,” Lila claimed. “But you, new girl, this is only your third day, so I figured I’d graciously give you one last chance to avoid ending up like pigtails over there. If you continue to resist, we will be enemies, and I will crush you.”

“Big talk for a windbag like you,” Cole replied, monotone. “We could shoot holes through your stories with moons. Your delusions of grandeur are quite pathetic, they’ll lead to your own undoing.”

“As if,” Lila scoffed. “You’re just a filthy American. These fools in our class are eating out of my hand. They won’t be persuaded by the likes of you.” She took a glance at Cole’s wristband. “ _ Especially with you being a f****t after all.” _

“Oh believe me,” Cole replied, her anger at being called such a slur boiling under the surface. “They could burn in Hell for all I care. But you made the mistake of messing with my family. You may be able to lie to fools, but those with actual intelligence will see right through you. And when they burn you on the pyre, I’ll be roasting marshmallows and enjoying your screams.”

The Italian’s face scrunched in rage. “You’ve made your choice. Enjoy becoming as despised as that bitch next to you.”

“Oh Rossi, I do have something for you,” Cole seemed to look in her pockets for a moment before reaching back with her middle finger held high. “Have a  _ lovely  _ day you thot. Enjoy your strings of lies for now, because the match is coming. And besides,” She held her tongue between her fingers shaped like a ‘v’. “You’re just mad that I can get some. While most won’t go  _ near  _ you like that. Straight or otherwise.”

The cousins spun on their heels and walked away, leaving the liar stewing in her own rage. They got to the classroom and sat down in their seats. Cole pulled some of snacks from her bag, giving one to Marinette. Instantly their phones dinged.

_ Weather or Nah _ _ created a group chat. _

_ Weather or Nah _ _ changed the name to  _ ** _“I’m running around New York with a pack of wild lesbians!”_ **

_ Weather or Nah _ _ added  _ _ Azureille _ _ ,  _ _ Sword Lesbian _ _ ,  _ _ BumbleBitch _ _ ,  _ _ Saltinette _ _ , and  _ _ Nick Fury’s Bat Wielding Skater Child _ _ to the chat.  _

_ Weather or Nah: _ _ ok everyone the bitch is going down _

_ BumbleBitch: _ _ What’d I do? _

_ Weather or Nah: _ _ not you, rossi _

_ Nick Fury’s Bat Wielding Skater Child: _ _ u saw that? _

_ Azureille: _ _ FUCK YEAH WE DID ROSSI FINNA DIE!!!! _

_ Weather or Nah: _ _ jfc Miri that was right in my ear _

_ Azureille: _ _ sorry  _

_ Sword Lesbian: _ _ I am sure my mother will not mind some blood stains on my sword today. _

_ Saltinette: _ _ Gays no killing yet! _

_ Saltinette: _ _ *guys _

_ Nick Fury’s Bat Wielding Skater Child: _ _ gays _

_ Weather or Nah: _ _ gays _

_ Sword Lesbian: _ _ gays _

_ BumbleBitch: _ _ gays _

_ Azureille: _ _ gays _

_ Weather or Nah: _ _ ANYWAYS, to recap, rossi called cole the f slur and we wont stand for it. So 1) cole r u ok? 2) did you get it on tape? and 3) where do we want to stow the body? _

_ Nick Fury’s Bat Wielding Skater Child: _ _ i have a cloud drive full of evidence, its uploading now _

_ Nick Fury’s Bat Wielding Skater Child: _ _ as for q1, not sure yet. and q3, well we’ll get to that eventually _

_ Azureille: _ maybe we should go to m damocles? 

_ BumbleBitch _ _ : Damocles is a pushover, believe me. All that bitch would have to do is lie with the emotional complexity of a slice of ham and he'd cave. At least in my experience. _

_ Nick Fury’s Bat Wielding Skater Child: _ _ we can work on it aftr school _

Cole yawned, no wonder Nettie was so tired all the time, akumas were  _ rough _ . They watched Rossi come in, soon after followed by Alya, frantically tapping away on her phone. It took only minutes for the waterworks to start. 

“What’s wrong Lila?” Kim asked. Marinette rolled her eyes, Lila was a wild card but if she was crying crocodile tears it meant she either wanted something or had just gotten served. Within seconds the class was around Lila and she was lapping up the attention like a spoiled lapdog. Cole took a single moment to begin recording again.

“I-I was trying t-to s-see i-if the n-new girl was o-okay and she-she t-told m-me t-to,” Rossi fake wailed, not even finishing her sentence. Probably couldn’t come up with something. 

_ Nick Fury’s Bat Wielding Skater Child: _ _ god she stutters like cheap actress _

The class spun to the newer student, rage in their eyes. Cole stared boredly back, feeling Trixx press against her side in her jacket. 

“How could you!?”  _ No, how could you? _

“Lila was only trying to help!” _ Lila’s ruining everything. _

“You’re just as much of a bitch as your girlfriend!” _ We’re not dating. _

“You’re horrible!”  _ Eh, this one is kinda true, but that could just be the self deprecation talking, maybe the trauma. _

“Honestly there’s a 99.99% probability that what Lila said was true!”  _ Biased stats are always wrong. _

Marinette looked like she was about to pass out, but Cole looked unbothered. She turned to her cousin, acting like nothing was wrong. She knew a way to deal with this.

“So Nettie,” She said, turning to her cousin. “Mom was wondering if you and your parents wanted to join us and Grandpa for dinner tonight. What do ya think?”

“That’s great,” Marinette replied. The insults and affrontements by the classmates who were edging closer and closer to the two. “I missed Dottie the last time I was over.”

“Yeah, she's a sweetie,” Cole brushed her hair back, not quite exposing her eyepatch, and never took the class out of her line of sight. “But she will try and bite still.”

They giggled for a moment before Cole’s hand shot up, catching Kim’s wrist in a vice, only centimeters from her face. She turned sharply to the jock. “Do you mind? We’re trying to have a conversation.”

“Apologize to Lila!” Kim spat in her face. Behind him the class looked ready for murder, but Cole was unfazed. She returned her glare to Kim, standing up and forcing him to look up to her. Her grip tightened and twisted sharply, not enough to damage but enough to hurt. Kim let out a yelp of surprise at how easily he was moved. 

“I don’t think so.” She shoved the boy away, sending him stumbling down to the rest of the group. “I owe nothing to any of you. My respect is something to be earned, and you lot will  _ never _ earn it. Once you stop thinking like a mob, then maybe I’ll consider any of you worth my time. Now leave. Us. Alone. I’d rather not have my IQ lowered anymore than it already has.”

The class sat flabbergasted and Lila smirked as if she’d won.  _ Can’t win when your opponent is in a whole other league. _ Cole thought. She sat back down as Bustier walked back in. The class was too in shock to say anything to the teacher, likely “planning” their next move.

Hard to plan when the opponent was already five steps ahead, but let them try. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, if you liked, leave a comment or a kudos! I'll be uploading more of my art for the series in the art installment for the series in a little bit, but college is hectic, so I can't guarantee a date. 
> 
> Next chapter "


	6. The Worst Day So Far (Read Chapter Notes)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a glimpse into the dynamic of Marinette's family with her Aunt, Cole, and Grandpa Sullivan, Marinette and Cole exchange presents, Adrien digs himself deeper into a hole, and things get way worse in the class, including Cole losing her cool (Adrien stans might wanna skip that), an akuma, and something else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Chapter depicts blood, some gore, and a character having a panic attack. If you are uncomfortable with these there will be a TL;DR at the end of the chapter so these moments can be skipped. (It starts where Alya says 'bitch' for reference.)
> 
> Thanks to @bigcheeseyboi on tumblr for being my beta reader.

Marinette sat with her parents in her Aunt’s home later that night. To her right was Cole, Maman was to her left, followed by Papa, Aunt Adelaide, and Cole’s grandpa. The man had insisted she call him “Grandpa” or “H.P.” but she was still having trouble with that. Dottie, with an adorable red checker bow around her neck, sat beneath the table. Tikki and Trixx were up in Cole’s room, eating some of Cole’s snacks.

Aunt Adelaide looked up from their meal, looking between the two cousins as her father-in-law told the two teens a story. 

“—It was 1956 and I’d been tailing the Manhattan Slaughterman through the Big Apple for weeks. I’d found that the suspect seemed to only go after a specific group, all with ties to an offshoot of the Mob,” H.P. said, his Brooklyn accent slipping through. Even with his hair long since gone silver, he looked as sharp as he’d been during his years as a detective. “I’d found that the suspect was a traitor who’d been trying to take initiative and take down his old affiliates with him.”

The two girls looked in awe at the story. Even if it was almost sixty years old, the tales of suspense were only made more interesting by H.P.’s storytelling talent. 

“My partner at the time, my future wife,” he continued. The two girls kept eating, but their eyes never left the old man. “She and I fought side by side in the gunfight that came when the jig was up. Golly, she was sharp as a whip and just as quick. Knew at that moment I had to marry her.”

Marinette watched the old man smile at the memory. His wife was ten years gone now, but he still loved her so much. She hoped to find someone like that someday. Her mind flashed back to the wedding nightmare from a few days before, but she shook it off. It’d never happen, the nightmare at least. She hoped the wedding would, even if the guest list would probably be different.

“That’s amazing Henry,” Tom sighed, taking a bite of food. “I forgot how enthralling your stories are.”

“Thank you Tom,” Henry replied. “It’s been so good to see you lot again.”

“When Grandpa told me we were able to move to Paris I thought he’d never stop grinning,” Cole interjected cheekily. Per Adelaide’s request, Cole’s bangs were pinned to the side of her head, just out of the way. The eyepatch for today had the same checker pattern as Dottie’s bow, as was the pin that held her bangs back. “I hadn’t seen him dance like that in years.”

“I told you I still got it.” The family laughed. Sabine turned to Adelaide,

“How’s your work been going Addie?” She asked. “Being a CEO must not be easy.”

Adelaide sighed, a tired smile across her face as she reached out to ruffle her daughter’s hair. “It hasn't been easy, but I’m glad I get to be with my daughter again. It makes the long hours bearable again.” Sabine nodded in agreement.

“Can you believe our kids are going to be in lycee in just three weeks?”

“Lycee?” Cole asked, trying to remember the word, which Marinette supplied,

“It’s like high school.”

“Ooh!” The adults chuckled as the young designer explained the French school system to her cousin. 

“Speaking of which,” Tom said. “Have you figured out what you want to do yet Cole?”

The one-eyed teen put her hand to her chin for a moment. Eventually she said,

“I’m not quite sure yet. I don’t really have any skills that could make for a good career.” 

“Well you still have time to figure it out,” Adelaide put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “Besides, I didn’t get into my position because I went to school for it, I just happened to be the best person for the job when the time came.”

As if done with the talks above her, Dottie wandered out from under the table and jumped her tiny body up into Cole’s lap. The teen’s arms flew wide and she yelled in surprise. The puppy yipped happily, licking Cole’s face with her tail wagging fast. The rest of the family laughed as Cole sputtered and tried to get the puppy to stop.

* * *

Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye. There were three or four akumas, which Ladybug and Vexxin took care of before Chat Noir would even get there. It seemed that whatever had happened in the cat’s civilian life made him regress from whatever progress Vexxin’s appearance had made, except for the flirting. Instead, he’d arrive late or not at all. Ladybug tied not to feel guilty about how she felt sort of happy to not see the cat holder except for those rare occasions.

The cousins had regular “sleepovers” where they’d go over tactics and put documents in the server they’d set up (Vexxin had tried to add Chat as a sort of begrudging olive branch, but he refused. His loss then. Marinette made the funniest memes.), run over the rooftops, and spar. 

Class seemed to take a turn for the worse. Cole was hated by most of the class, but her apathy only seemed to entice them. Lila threw about more lies about the two cousins. They threatened her; they made fun of her; they were throwing stones at her window at night. The list went on. 

Alya seemed to take on the role of “Official Vexxin Hater”, and was just as vivacious on the Lila front, as were the rest of the class. Kim seemed to try a physical approach of “defending Lila,” which were mainly thwarted by the fact that Cole had him beat in most physical categories (even if it took her a moment to get a full view of her surroundings), and Marinette was never seen without the rest of her new friends. Several others tried other things, but found that the two were several steps ahead of them. 

No items of value in the lockers.  _ They’d changed the locks too. _

No unattended bags or phones.  _ They’re new, wouldn’t want to break them. _

No sketchbooks or longboards left around. _ Wouldn’t want anyone “tripping” over them. _

No going to the bathroom alone.  _ Safety in numbers. _

Meanwhile, Marinette and Cole grew closer to Chloe, Kagami, Aurore, and Mireille. They threw a small party when Aurore finally worked up the courage to ask Mireille out on a date. They celebrated Kagami’s birthday and watched the midnight showing of a new movie as a group. After a while, Marinette’s nightmares began to lessen, giving her more sleep. It helped that when they were at Cole’s house Dottie would snuggle up with the designer from time to time. Sometimes the two cousins would fall asleep next to each other and Marinette would feel like she was six again, there was no Hawkmoth and the biggest problem she and Cole had to face was the asparagus at the dinnertable.

* * *

On the Sunday night before the final week of school began, the two were doing some last minute projects and commissions when Marinette passed Cole a wrapped present. Cole sat up from where she lay spread out on Marinette’s floor, half painted skate deck in front of her. Tikki and Trixx hovered near their chosen, knowing what was coming.

“Mari?” Cole asked, gently taking the box from her cousin.

“It’s for all the help you’ve given me,” Marinette said. “And…it’s a good luck present.”

Cole observed the gift, wrapped in space themed paper and topped with a ribbon. Pale hands slowly unwrapped it, popping the tape off and sliding the paper off in one piece. Inside was a box, which when the lid was lifted, it revealed the actual present, situated amongst pastel tissue paper.

It was a Marinette original, a cold shoulder shirt. Two tone green straps wrapping around the arm portions and making up the square neckline and shoulder straps. From there it would fade from a faint white to a watermelon pink at the hems on both the body and sleeves. Fastened here or there around the shirt were small, black, seed shaped beads. The sleeves went from high on the outside to low on the inside, with loose gathers and a light look.

“Marinette,” Cole gasped. “I love it, thank you!” She launched herself at the shorter girl, enveloping her cousin in a hug. The two kwami looked between each other, slightly confused, but caught sight of the picture that was tucked into the box.

A young Marinette, wearing pink overalls and her hair in high pigtails sat next to a younger Cole, whose hair reached her waist in double braids, making her two eyes shine brightly. What stood to be the only connection was what the young American was wearing a dress with green hems, white accent piping, a pink body, and small black seed shapes dotting the skirt. Below the picture read,

_ Nettie and Lettie, Summer ‘06. _

The kwami were still confused, but seemed to get that it stemmed from a happy memory. Looking back to the cousins, they noticed Cole pull out a box of her own, handing it over to her cousin.

That box was wrapped in pink paper, a more pastel than Marinette’s usual shade, and wrapped with a curly white ribbon. The designer unwrapped the gift a bit more messily than her cousin, opening the box. She gasped, reaching in and pulling out an enamel pin, hand crafted, depicting the apple blossoms Marinette loved so much. 

The two cousins were beyond words, hugging as tears streamed down their faces. 

The next morning they came down the stairs wide awake, wearing their gifts. Cole paired hers with a pair of fitted shorts and a green banded watch and eye patch, exposed by her pinned back hair. Marinette wore her hair down with a pink headband and a dark top with a white collar and a pink skirt and matching flats, the pin attached proudly to her left side.

Sabine sent the girls off with a wave and some treats hidden away in the lunch boxes she gave them. As they got to the street, Cole threw down her board and nudged her head in the direction of it.

“I know what that look is,” Marinette sighed with a grin. “No.”

“C’mon Nettie,” Cole smirked, hopping on the end. The freshly painted deck was much longer than the one she usually used, and had enough room for both of them. Marinette stuck her tongue out at her cousin and got on. After a few moments, they got coordinated enough to push off together. 

The board took off, carrying them towards the school. Marinette laughed and held her arms out like Cole taught her to do, and they slowed to a stop at the steps. Kagami, who’d arrived early, laughed aloud as they rolled up. Marinette hopped off with a small bow as Cole popped the board up into her waiting hand. 

“Fun ride?” Kagami joked. The two nodded, and as they headed up the steps Kagami asked, “Any plans for break?”

“Commissions,” Marinette replied. “Maybe some sleepovers or hangouts if anyone is interested.”

“I’m gonna intern at my mom’s company four days a week,” Cole stated. “Maybe see if it’s a viable career path for me. I’m also open to hangouts. Other than that it’s just training Dottie and some doctor’s appointments. What about you Kagami?”

The Japanese girl smiled comfortably. “Visiting some family back in Japan, some tournaments and the like. I’m also not opposed to meeting up if you are available.”

“Of course!”

“Absolutely!” Cole fidgeted with her eyepatch as they found their usual table. Marinette pulled out her sketchbook to show Kagami a design. Not five minutes later they were joined by Chloe, who sat down next to Kagami. 

“What’s on the list for this week everyone?” She asked. Kagami rattled off her usual practices, Marinette had her usual, and Cole’s usual with the exception of a doctor’s appointment later that day, while also reminding the others that Aurore and Mireille were going on a date after school.

“Marinette, can I talk to you?” The girls turned to see Adrien, one of the only other people in the school yard. Cole glared at the model, ready to say something, but Marinette hummed a ‘no’ to her. The taller cousin frowned but nodded. 

“Anything you can say to me you can say in front of them Adrien,” Marinette replied. Adrien gave a sour look. He’d probably been looking to corner her.

“Fine,” he replied shortly. “You and your girlfriend need to stop antagonizing Lila and the rest of the class. We’ve talked about this, her lies will come out eventually, but if she becomes akumatized it’ll be your fault.”

Marinette stared wide eyed at Adrien, while the rest of the girls present glared. Kagami saw Cole double check her phone for something, likely to see if it was recording, before glaring at the model. Chloe scoffed. 

“Are you listening to yourself Adrien?” The blonde’s tone was icy and sharp. “You’ve known Rossi is lying?”

“Yes! But calling her out won’t do anything, we have to take the high road.” He seemed either oblivious of the angry aura directed at him or just ignored it. “But you trying to expose Lila will only make things worse, she’s not hurting anybody.”

Seven eyes narrowed. Marinette spoke next,

“Adrien. I thought I could trust you. It seems I was wrong.”

“No, you brought others into this! This is on you.” Cole slammed her hands on the table.

“Oi shit for brains.” Eyes turned to her. “You’re more than just the fool I thought you were. For one thing, Nettie and I are  _ cousins _ , y’know, family? AKA that’s gross and you’re a moron. And if you think that liar hasn’t hurt anyone with her lies, then you’re not only stupid, but willfully ignorant.”

“I-”

“No, you listen! We’re not in High School Musical you dumbass, coddling her like she’s done nothing wrong and expecting her to do a 180 on her entire basis is impossible because she won’t change. She’s vile and she’s going to go down. Now you have two options; join us and grow a spine for once in your life, or prepare to get burned on the pyre along with her.” 

“Are you threatening me?” Adrien’s eyes narrowed. “That’s low for someone faking a disability.”

Cole’s face twisted in on itself and before anyone could react, Cole had reached under her eyepatch and threw the fluid spotted gauze pad at Adrien’s feet, even if she was tempted to throw it square at his chest, maybe even his face. She ripped off the eyepatches, decorative and medical, revealing the sunken eye socket, bruised and half healed. 

“Does this look fake to you, you banana haired moose twit?”

“Whoa,” Kagami gasped. She refocused on Adrien again. “Watch yourself today Agreste, you were treading on thin ice before, but now you’ve broken it.”

“Kaga-”

“Just go Adrien,” Marinette snapped. “If you whatever else you have to say isn’t an apology, we don’t want to hear it. You’ve made your choice. And next year, I won’t have to deal with it over in Mendeleiv’s class.”

“You’re turning your back on your friends.”

“I’m making a choice that is in my own best interests. I’m done being demonized and being in a bad environment. And I’m not the only one.” 

“Nope,” Chloe added. “The entire squad will be together, The four of us, Aurore, and Mireille.”

“You too Chloe?” Adrien growled. “I can’t believe you three.” He turned to Cole. “And you’re nothing but trouble. I hope you’re happy.”

“Overjoyed,” Cole gritted in reply. Adrien spun on his heel and stomped away like a petulant child. “So long, you won’t be missed you farce! He has the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair.”

Kagami turned to Marinette, who was near tears despite her anger. The Japanese teen reached a hand out to her, clasping one of her clenched fists in her own. “Are you alright Marinette?”

“I don’t know,” the pigtailed girl admitted. Tears bubbled at the corners of her eyes as Cole disposed of the used gauze pad, slipping her eyepatches on again and cursing herself for losing her temper, even if it’d been a long time coming. Marinette felt Tikki and Trixx press against her in an attempt to comfort her as Cole wrapped her up in a hug. “I’m so sorry I pulled you all into this.”

Concerned looks were thrown around the table. Chloe spoke up.

“We got involved because we care, we’re your friends Marinette,” her voice was quivering, like she was near tears herself. “You’re an amazing person, and you don’t deserve to be hurt like this.”

“Chloe’s right,” Kagami added. “You’re a kind person, and taking care of yourself is the kindest thing you can do. You’ve given so much to them and they’ve only thrown it back at you. It’s their loss. I’m sorry you’ve had to put up with what Agreste was doing. What was the word again?”

“Gaslighting,” Cole supplied discreetly. “And general manipulation.”

Marinette broke the embrace, taking a calming breath like Master Fu had taught her. She was still upset, still hurt. But she felt a little better. Turning to Chloe and Kagami, she smiled melancholically. “Thank you for sticking up for me, I can’t believe I ever liked him like that.”

“Same,” Chloe replied. “Mme. Agreste would be so upset over how he’s been acting.”

“I will have to talk with my Mother,” Kagami supplied. “But I’m putting a stop to any further association beyond “teammates” with Agreste. His cowardice would only get in the way.”

“AKUMA!” A student yelled, pointing to the butterfly in question, fluttering toward the table they were at. Marinette and Cole scrambled away in one direction, while Kagami and Chloe stumbled to get away in the other. They crashed to the ground when they found themselves tangled in the strap of Kagami’s bag.

“Kagami! Chloe! Look out!” Marinette yelled as the akuma dove into the bag. Butterfly masks appeared on the two girls faces.

“Y-Yes Hawkmoth,” They said in unison. 

“Run!” Cole gasped, grabbing Marinette by the wrist and running away, stumbling for purchase. The dark energy bubbled up over Chloe and Kagami as the two cousins ran out the side entrance of the school. 

The bubbling mass consumed the two girls in the courtyard, when it faded there was two figures standing there. They each wore short chiton inspired dresses, their hair adorned with gold and silver crowns and other details. They floated above the ground, each having a small pouch around their waists along with a sword for Kagami, and a bow and arrow for Chloe. Deep red wings were on their back and matched their red eyes.

“We are Nemesis and Adrestia!” They called out in unison. “Retribution has come!”

Chloe, Adrestia, pulled back her arrows and fired on the crowd of fleeing students. Those who were hit froze, while the arrow would fracture and hit others around the victim. Soon the entire courtyard was affected. Nemesis meanwhile prowled the halls slicing at anyone she came across, having the same effect as Adrestia’s arrows.

“Adrien,” Nemesis called out. “Come face your punishment.”

The blond in question was nowhere to be seen, much to Nemesis’ ire. Until she came upon Alya and Lila, spying on her from behind a door. Painted lips curled into a sneer and she sliced the door open. The reporter scrambled to keep her livestream going, shouting out incomprehensible questions, while Lila yelled out lies about how Nemesis shouldn’t come any closer, because of her “martial arts championship” or something along the lines. Pathetic.

“You two shall both face judgement,” Nemesis said, level and cool. She sliced through Alya first, rendering her frozen, and throwing her sword at Lila, hitting her right between the eyes. 

Both girls watched frozen as one half of the akuma pair beckoned them forward. They followed her through the halls, joined by every student Nemesis came across.

When they got back to the courtyard, Nemesis commanded them into a kneeling position, arms behind their backs and heads bowed. Alya looked up momentarily to see that their entire class was there in the same positions.

“We are gathered here today to witness the punishment of this group of traitors and liars,” Adrestia called out, readying an arrow. “They have committed many atrocities against a person of purity, darkening her light. Now witness, what happens to those who abuse or manipulate those around them!”

Adrestia leveled the arrow at Lila’s temple, and as she prepared to let the arrow fly, a familiar red and black yo-yo knocked her aim off, sending the arrow into the pavement. The two akuma turned to see Ladybug and Vexxin standing on the roof. Each looked stressed, but prepared to take on the akuma.

“Ladybug, Vexxin!” Adrestia called up. “You’re just in time to witness the trial!”

“And to surrender your miraculous!” Nemesis added. 

“I don’t think you two are legally qualified to hold trial,” Vexxin replied. “In fact, I’m sure it’s a crime. Kangaroo court and all.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Ladybug sighed. “You’re both better than this!”

“This is justice!” The two akuma yelled in unison, leaping up to the roof. Ladybug used her spinning yo-yo to deflect Adrestia’s arrows, while Vexxin blocked Nemesis’s sword with her bat. They all seemed evenly matched, even if it wasn’t always a head on fight.

Below the controlled students were turned to watch, heads craned and eyes forced to follow each blow. No one seemed to notice a certain blond model and blond cat were nowhere to be seen.

“C’mon Ladybug,” Adrestia cooed, firing off more arrows. “We just want justice and retribution for our friend.”

“This isn’t the way Chloe and you know it,” Ladybug replied. Her yo-yo was a blur as she deflected each arrow. They flew off in different directions until, as if by luck, one struck Nemesis.

“Watch it,” Nemesis growled. Vexxin took that opportunity to slip behind and knock Nemesis off the roof with her bat. The akuma fell and Vexxin fumbled for the sword, snapping it over her knee. 

“There,” Vexxin sighed. “Now she doesn’t have any reach.”

Her hair stood on end, danger. She spun and swung her bat up, intercepting three arrows coming at her.

“Just give us your miraculous!” Adrestia yelled. “Justice  _ has  _ to be served! Our friend has been hurt! Demonized! By that lying shrew and her mob of puppets!”

With Adrestia distracted by Vexxin and Nemesis still working her way back up to the roof, Ladybug tossed her yo-yo in the air. “Lucky Charm!”

The pink-red light condensed into the form of a plush fox. It dropped into Ladybug’s hands as she gave a confused “huh?” Her blue eyes swept over the battlefield. Suddenly it popped into her head.

Vexxin. Her Mirage.

“Vexxin!” She yelled. There was a look between cousins for a moment and the fox swung at Adrestia, sending her over the roof and into Nemesis. Taking the moment out of sight, Vexxin spun her bat, morphing it into her flute. 

“Mirage,” She whispered, activating its power. With the quick tune, light sped out of the end flying off into the distance. As she spun the bat to send it back to a bat, a voice sprung up loud and clear.

“Go away Adrien!” Ladybug jolted at the voice. It was  _ hers. _

“Marinette!” Nemesis and Adrestia gasped. The doors swung open and Marinette ran through, pursued by a furious Adrien. 

“You just had to bring others into this Marinette and look what you did! They’re akumatized!” Ladybug looked to Vexxin and gestured to the two teens on the floor. Vexxin shrugged. 

“I only made the Marinette illusion, that must be the real Adrien.” Ladybug’s gut dropped. That wasn’t part of the plan. “They’re going to try and protect that Marinette, but we can swoop in and tie them up.” 

The two akuma ran toward the illusion and the model. Adrien seemed too focused on the Marinette illusion, who kept dancing just out of his reach, lest he break the illusion. The two heroines ran across the roof, only to see that rather than attack with their weapons, the duo akuma ran past and landed simultaneous punches to his nose and gut. The blond crumpled with a groan. 

“You’re at fault Agreste!” Nemesis growled, pulling a new sword from the pouch at her waist and leveling it at the bloody nosed model. 

“You’ve been hurting Marinette just as bad as the rest of them. You’ve been two-faced and passive! She doesn’t deserve to be hurt!” Adrestia yanked him up by his shirt collar. The butterfly masks reappeared and the two akuma froze.

“Now,” Ladybug said to herself. She threw her yo-yo and wound it around the two. Vexxin leapt behind them and swiped their feet from under them and tossed the two satchels up to Ladybug. 

The spotted heroine ripped them in half, releasing the Akuma. She recalled her yo-yo and threw it toward the escaping corrupted butterfly, releasing a pure white one in its place. With a quick toss she sent the plush fox into the air, releasing a swarm of ladybugs as Vexxin hopped back up onto the roof as her miraculous let out a two minute beep. 

“I’ll be right back,” She replied. With a snap the Marinette illusion burst into a cloud of smoke in time with the dark energy retreating from Chloe and Kagami. The fox heroine leapt off into the city. Ladybug followed suit, leaping off in the same direction. 

They landed in the same alley they’d transformed in and, after checking that no one was watching, they released their transformations.

“Tikki, spots off.”

“Trixx, let’s rest.” 

Simultaneous glows filled the alley, replacing Ladybug and Vexxin with Marinette and Cole. They looked to each other and their kwami partners, giving them a cookie and a berry before rushing to hug each other. 

“How could I have ever liked him?” Marinette sniffled. “Am I really that bad?”

“Nettie no,” Cole soothed, stroking her cousin’s blue-black locks. “You’re an amazing person. Talented, kind, loyal. Everyone should be grateful that you’re in their lives, I know I am.”

Marinette’s tears were warm and wet against Cole’s exposed shoulder, her small chest shuddering as she finally cried. Tikki settled in her hair, running her paws through her chosen’s hair as Trixx settled on her shoulder. The four stayed there like that for several minutes. Slowly Marinette’s sobs petered off, leaving her face red and her skin spotty. 

Marinette broke the embrace and wiped her tears. Even if she felt bad, it felt good to finally cry. She looked up to her cousin, who was still glassy eyed.

“Don’t cry you dork,” Marinette teased. “You don’t need the doctor yelling at you about today.”

“Let him yell,” Cole replied, giving her a one arm hug as they began walking back to the school, one hand pulling her longboard behind her. Their kwami gently returned to their hiding spots. As they entered the courtyard again, they were both crashed into and squeezed in a hug by a fervent Chloe.

“There you two are!” She chided. 

“We were very worried,” Kagami added. “I’m sorry if we scared you two.”

“Guys it’s okay,” Marinette said, voice muffled by Chloe’s cardigan. The blonde let the two cousins go, albeit reluctantly. “Hawkmoth’s the one to blame.”

“If I ever see him,” Cole growled, clenching her fist. “Well, let’s just call it assault followed by public castration.”

“Only if I get to give him a good kick there before you do it,” Marinette retorted. She surveyed the near empty courtyard, catching her classmates peering at them from around the upstairs corner, knife sharp glares holding all the heat of a lukewarm chicken nugget.

“We’ll be right by your side when you do,” Kagami declared, her voice firm yet warm. They began walking towards the classrooms, Cole noting the cowards in run from their corner, when Kagami turned to the two cousins. “Do you two want to join Chloe and I after school today? Spend the afternoon together?”

“I’m free.”

“Sure.” 

The quartet strode purposefully through the courtyard. Marinette may still have been upset, but she felt a power beneath her skin, her friends at her back. They waved to Kagami as she strode off to her own classroom. Chloe tapped away on her phone, looking unbothered by her recent akumatization, even if Marinette knew that facade was simply that. They opened the door to see the tail end of what had to be a rapid scramble of their classmates trying to act casual, even if some didn’t hide their glares. 

“You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here,” Alix sneered. “You three are despicable. A bitch, a bully, and a fraud.”

“No one asked you pipsqueak,” Cole shot back, thinking, ‘ _ They want a bitch? They’ll get a bitch.’ _ Alix grew red and slammed her hands on the desk. 

“What did you just call me!?”

“Pipsqueak. Shortstack. Fun-size. Travel size. Munchkin,” Cole listed off. “Did you hear me that time or do I have to list more?”

The class exploded with exclamations and accusations as they rounded on the newest member, who looked ready to throw down on any of them. 

"Oh you're so gonna get it!" Alix tried to launch herself over the table, only to be held back by a scowling Kim. 

“Honestly,” Chloe groaned. “You’re all ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. Turning against the kindest person in Paris without a second thought. Some friends you were.”

Alya looked up from where she was, likely writing a Vexxin hate tweet. Before anyone could react, she threw herself forward with a screech. Just before she could reach her target of her ex-best friend, Marinette was pulled out of the way last second, shielded by her cousin. Alya tumbled to the floor, crashing with a shout. 

“You bitches!” She yelled. Her hand swiped at them as she scrambled to her feet. Marinette, Chloe and Cole dodged her. “Why do you have to ruin everything! You should just leave!”

She finally got a lucky shot, grabbing at Cole’s eyepatch and ripping it off. Cole screamed as the reporter’s specifically sharpened nails tore her still healing skin, popping stitches and tearing some of the thin skin. On reflect Cole reared back and snapped her fist right into Alya’s nose. There was a satisfying crack as Alya’s head snapped back and she fell to the floor clutching her nose and screaming obscenities.

“Cole!” Chloe and Marinette ran over to Cole, who was swaying on her feet. 

“What is going on here!?” Bustier burst in, Mendeleiv and Kagami hot on her heels. They gasped at the sight of a bloody nosed Alya on the floor and Cole shaking like a leaf with blood beginning to run down her face. “Collette! What have you done!?”

“She insulted us!” Alix yelled.

“She hit Alya!”

“She doesn’t have vision problems, Lila told us!”

“You weren’t asked!” Cole yelled and spun on her heel, swaying slightly. She tucked her hair behind her ear (the barette she’d used earlier had been torn out), revealing the damage to her eye socket. “This mob of fools has been horrible to me, my cousin, and my friends for as long as I’ve been here. The cruel words and glares were annoying enough, even if they held as much threat as a half thawed carrot, but today we come in and Cesaire tries to attack us. She got a lucky shot on me, and I reacted on instinct.”

“You attacked a student!” Bustier yelled. She shoved past Cole to help pick Alya up. The girl snarled at Cole, whose arm had been pulled over Marinette’s shoulder. 

“You’re a monster,” Alya spit, sending a glob of blood at Cole’s face. 

“So I’ve been told,” Cole replied. “But I can at least show  _ some _ loyalty. Unlike you, you mindless gossip hound.”

“Both of you,” Mendeleiv snapped. “Principal’s office. Now.” 

Bustier helped Alya out of the room, while Mendeleiv stayed to watch the class. As the two cousins turned to go, Menedleiv snapped, “Just Mlle. Sullivan, Mlle. Dupain-Cheng. Take your seat.”

“But-” Marinette began.

“It’s fine Nettie,” Cole cut her off. “Just stay safe until I get back.” 

With a final gory glare to the class and a meaningful look to Chloe, Cole turned and left the room. Up ahead she could hear Bustier consoling ‘poor Alya’ about how she wasn’t in trouble. Whatever, Cole had dealt with useless teachers before.

Even as the ground began to sway under her feet and her world began to spin, Cole kept moving. She ran through the chain of events in her head. She went to class, got insulted, threw insults back, Cesaire went batshit and tried to get at Marinette, Cole kept her safe, Cesaire got a lucky shot and scratched at her eye, she reacted on reflex and punched.

She knew the laws, she was in the legal right. But it still didn’t stop the tremors or the chills working their way up her body, making her mind stall and stutter as they made their way to Damocles’s office, where the man sat again behind the desk.

“Now what is this I hear about a fight going on?” He seemed calm, if a little tired when they sat down, Alya being led like she was about to collapse any moment and Cole swaying on her feet. 

“She’s been nothing but trouble Professor Damocles!” Alya yelled. Cole stared blankly, as if she weren’t fully there. “She’s been rude to Lila, lying about having a disability, and she was insulting the class!”

“And that gave you the right to physically attack her?”

“Yes!” Professor Damocles sighed and pressed a hand to the bridge of his nose. 

“Mlle Cesaire, that is incorrect. Now, since you two got into this fight, I’ve had to call your parents.” At that point there was a knock at the door. “Come in.”

The door swung open and Nora Cesaire walked in, followed by Adelaide Dupain and Grandpa Sullivan. Mme Bustier paled as she recognized Adelaide from one of her magazines. One of the most successful women in the world, a stony face equal to her daughter’s but with an icy glare.

“Mme Dupain, M Sullivan,” Damocles greeted. “Mlle Cesaire, am I to assume you’re here to represent your parents.”

“Yeah,” Nora nodded, giving a glare at her sister’s classmate. From where she was standing, she only saw the left side of the girl’s face, completely obscuring the damage Alya had done. 

“Very well. Mlle Cesaire, please repeat to the current company your side of the story.”

Haughty as ever, Alya took the tissues off her face and recalled her tale. As she declared Cole’s disability false, the non-staff darkened, when she declared that Cole was rude to another student, was a bully and had “caused all the bad things” in class, they darkened again. Finally satisfied, Alya said, “And just to be sure, I’ll put a post on the Ladyblog to watch out for people like her.”

Adelaide looked ready to have an aneurysm. Nora turned to Cole and said,

“You’ve got some nerve hurting my baby sister punk. Got anything to say for yourself?”

“Mlle Cesaire, she hasn’t told her side of the story. Mlle Sullivan if you would.” 

They waited. And waited. And waited. Finally Cole spoke, “I’ve had a target painted on my back from the first day I was here by this one,” She pointed to Alya, “and the one who uses her like an attack dog. She leapt at me and Marinette and got a lucky shot. I reacted on instinct.” At this she turned to Alya and Nora, “And fuck you and your gossip rag. ‘S a load of bull.”

Nora growled and Alya yelled again, launching herself at Cole, only to be held back by Nora. Adelaide turned to Damocles. 

“And why wasn’t my daughter given any sort of medical attention?” Adelaide gestured to her daughter’s eye, where it was still bleeding, her hand being the only thing keeping her shirt clean. At this Mme Bustier frowned. 

“We were more concerned with getting the victim medical attention.” Several pairs of eyebrows raised as Damocles turned to Bustier and said,

“I told you to get  _ both _ of them medical attention if they need it.” The redhead huffed, as if she’d done just what he said. 

“Incompetent fuck,” Cole mumbled, her body shaking more. Damocles sighed, handing Cole a box of tissues. The girl blankly took it with a shaking hand, only for it to slip and fall to the floor. 

As Cole limply bent down to pick it up, Grandpa Sullivan spoke up.

“Do you mind if I take her outside for a moment while you all discuss the event?” Bustier and Nora looked ready to object, but Damocles gave Cole a look over. He nodded his permission. With that Grandpa Sullivan stood in front of her and offered his arm. She took it and let him gently lead her out.

Outside, Grandpa led her to a nearby bench, setting her down and sitting next to her. He folded some tissues into squares and gently held the pad up for her to take. He knew from experience that trying to touch her eye when she was like this wasn’t a good idea. 

“He’s not here Letta,” Grandpa whispered softly. “It’s going to be okay. You’re not in trouble.” 

Cole leaned against him, shaking like a leaf, head on a shaky swivel as she observed the entryways, like she was waiting for someone to attack her. Slowly there was a rustling and from Cole’s bag emerged Trixx. He took one look at Grandpa and the two nodded. Cole first, talk later. Trixx flew around and nuzzled in his chosen’s hair, muttering how he was gonna make sure she was safe.

“Gran...Grandpa?" 

"That's right Letta, come on back now. We're not in America anymore, we're in Paris and he's gone. Can you name five things you see?"

"You. St-stairs. Sky. Door. Ball."

"Good, now four things you can feel."

"Hand ...tissue. Shirt. Bench."

"Three you hear."

"You. Principal. Fox." Trixx nuzzled closer.

"Two you smell."

"Cologne. Blood."

"One thing you taste." 

"Breakfast." By now she was fully crying, tears sliding down her face as she repeated the process in her head.

Trixx glared at the lurking dark butterfly that fluttered around looking for a victim. Grandpa followed the kwami's eyes, sheltering his granddaughter from the akuma should it come closer. Inside Adelaide could be heard tearing Bustier a new one. She and her brother were quite opposites it seemed. Him, tall but a large teddy bear, and her shorter with a much quicker temper. 

Around fifteen minutes later, an angry Nora dragged a livid Alya out of the office. But now the older Cesaire’s anger was directed at her little sister rather than Cole, who she looked at with a guilty look. 

Not long after, Adelaide came out with a glare that could cut ice. She turned to Grandpa and Cole, not noticing Trixx sneak back into Cole’s bag. Her gaze softened as she saw her daughter look around disoriented.

“M-Mom?” Cole looked to her, tears still coming. 

“You’re not in trouble with us sweetheart, but first things first, we need to get you to the doctor to get that eye looked at.” Adelaide helped her daughter up, neither looking to see if anyone was watching as they made their way out of the school. 

Up on the roof, the little butterfly fluttered away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that didn't trigger a panic attack or anything for people, if it did I apologize. If you skipped that part, here's the TL;DR:
> 
> So basically Alya tries to attack the trio, and scratches at Cole's eye, tearing off the eye patch and hurting her skin underneath (which is still healing). Bustier is a bad teacher and guides Alya, who got a swift punch in the nose for what she did, and leaves Cole to stumble after them, to the office.
> 
> Damocles calls in the parents of the two, but Nora shows up in place of Alya's parents, and Adelaide and Grandpa aren't too pleased on how Bustier denied Cole medical attention. While Adelaide reads them the riot act, Grandpa brings Cole outside to bring her out of a panic attack. Trixx is seen by Grandpa but they decide to comfort Cole first, trying to avoid her getting akumatized from the butterfly is looming over the school. 
> 
> Nora then drags Alya out of the office and Adelaide comforts her daughter and the chapter ends with them leaving the school to get Cole medical attention.
> 
> TL;DR done.
> 
> Sorry again, next chapter will be a bit fluffier.
> 
> Thank you for reading, and I hope you all have a good day.


	7. Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pieces fall in place for someone, allowing them to see the truth. The cousins have a moment to reflect and relax. A liar plots, unaware of how her "empire" will crumble. 
> 
> (Also chapter contains a censored out slur so just a heads' up.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So....yeah....those episodes weren't as good as I hoped, and the comments That Guy made on his Twitter...my expectations were low but jfc man. 
> 
> Anyways, big thanks to @bigcheeseyboi on tumblr for being my beta reader.

Nino walked home alone after the last day of school. After he’d overheard what Adrien had said to Marinette and her cousin (God that was her _ cousin, _ he felt so gross about believing they were dating and he should’ve recognized Cole, they’d met once when they were kids after all,) as well as their friend group, there’d been a ball of energy in his stomach, leaching through his veins and making him feel like he couldn’t sit still. 

He remembered what Adrien had said when he’d confronted him. _ Her lies aren’t hurting anybody. Marinette just doesn’t get that I’m right. She brought in other people and messed everything up. _God, Nino wanted to vomit. He avoided Adrien and Lila, kind of easy when Adrien wouldn’t pry the Italian off. 

With Alya suspended for attacking Cole, and the rest of the class (sans Chloe and Marinette) on probation for their actions, no one was really in the mood for hanging out. Lila claimed she was going to be leaving for humanitarian work in Achu today, but something about those words felt off to him.

_ “She’s a liar Lahiffe,” _ Chloe had said as Cole left the classroom. _ “If you want the whole truth, talk to Cole. Because I sure as hell don’t want to talk to you; and right now, neither does Marinette.” _

He shook his head vigorously, trying to shake the negativity away. Looking back, he was glad he hadn’t given Lila any of his work. If Marinette and the others were right, who knows what Lila would have done with it. Something in his gut told him the answer would be “play it off as her own.” 

Nino remembered how things had changed over the past few months since Lila came back. Marinette had been strangely sour for someone usually so sweet. That alone should’ve shown him that something was up. He’d known Marinette since they were toddlers, she’d never act like how Lila was claiming. And with Adrien confirming that Lila had been lying, Nino felt sick.

He opened the door to his place and closed it behind him. Kicking his shoes off at the door, he wandered through the apartment like a lost soul. How could things have gone so wrong. There had to be a way to fix this. Couldn’t there?

Something off caught the corner of his vision. His head spun to see a dark blue piece of paper tied to the side of his bag. When had that gotten there? He went over and untied the paper, unfolding it.

_ if you want to know the full story, add 543y on discord _

Nino frowned, grabbing his phone and opening the app. He tapped the number in and added them.

**DJ-Lahiffe:** Hello? 

**Nick Fury’s Bat Wielding Skater Child:** Hello Lahiffe. One second.

**Nick Fury’s Bat Wielding Skater Child** _ changed their name to _ **Serious Business**.

**Serious Business:** There. Now, let’s get down to business. You want the full story?

**DJ-Lahiffe:** I have to know what’s really going on dude. Everything’s a mess.

**Serious Business:** Well then. Let’s start.

Nino texted with the person for hours, getting a sum of who they were. They went to Francoise Dupont, knew Marinette and most of the class, and _ hated _ Lila. They stated plainly that they don’t trust him or anyone in the class, but as per Marinette’s request, she was giving him _ one _more chance. 

They showed him evidence and slowly things began to fall into place. Lila’s stories failed to line up with any substantial evidence. Her video calls were staged. Testimony from Marinette on her threats. Lila’s manipulation of the class, targeting their specific interests. Manipulation that left the previously jovial class hateful and violent. 

If Nino had felt sick beforehand, he felt like death now. Sleep didn’t come easy to him that night, thoughts of what he’d done running through his head. What they’d done. 

He had to find Marinette tomorrow and apologize.

* * *

Cole put her phone down as Dottie snuggled closer. The two were with Marinette in Cole’s room for a sleepover. The pigtailed girl in question was tiredly doodling in a new sketchbook. 

“Hey Nettie,” Cole called over. Marinette looked over to her. “What’s Mendeleiv like?”

Marinette tapped her pencil to her chin. “She’s strict, but fair. What you saw Monday wasn’t her usual. She clearly states her expectations of the class and isn’t afraid to give detentions. But she does care for her students in her own way I guess.”

Cole sat up, feeling a bit bad as Dottie whimpered at the loss of warmth. The puppy was three months old now, her spots as dark as ever. Cole gently rubbed her head, making the puppy hum in her sleep.

“Is she better than Bustier?” Cole sighed. 

“Totally,” Marinette moved to sit next to her cousin on the bed. “She’s not gonna let us be hurt like Bustier did.”

Cole looked off to the side, recalling how Bustier had apparently blamed her and Marinette for “setting a bad example” by standing up for themselves. Damocles had reluctantly gave Cole a week’s suspension (who petitioned for it, neither of the girls knew, but they had their suspects); he gave Alya three weeks suspension once school got back in and seven more in detention once school restarted for starting the fight. The rest of the class had been put on behavioral watch, enforced by Mendeleiv. Bustier’s fate was unknown to the two cousins, as her fate was still “in discussion” by the school board, frustrating them and the adults. 

The aftermath took a lot out of Cole. Her doctor, Dr. Ermittenburg, had been horrified to see the damage done to her eye. Whatever Cesaire had done to her nails, it hurt _ bad _. Several of Cole’s stitches had been ripped, some new scratches had been etched and others had ripped out the fragile scabs that were in there. Dr. Ermittenburg had fixed her up, but he said her healing had been set back weeks, which pushed her getting a glass eye back even further. 

So there she sat, new stitches, pain meds, and several gauze pads later. She wasn’t grounded, but she did have to explain to the adults what had been happening. Adelaide tried to set up a meeting with Mme Rossi, but the diplomat didn’t answer her phone that night. So the CEO had settled for a night in with her frazzled daughter, eating takeout and figuring out where to go from there in all aspects, legal and otherwise. Adelaide Dupain was not someone to be trifled with, so no matter the outcome, justice would be severe.

Cole flicked her phone on and reluctantly checked the Ladyblog. The most recent post had been from the Cesaire parents, who told the blog followers that their Ladyblogger was grounded until further notice and wouldn’t be updating for a while, since they needed to deal with Alya’s assault of a classmate and the fallout of that. That had set off five akumas across Paris over the next few days after the post. Some were pro-Alya; most weren't.

It left the two heroines tired. Marinette curled into Cole’s side, searching for the human heater that was her cousin. The designer hadn’t said much about the incident, but neither did Cole. Those four days following the incident had been rough for the designer. 

Slurs thrown her way.

Cornered and threatened.

The ever looming presence of Hawkmoth.

Thankfully, she had Kagami, Chloe, Aurore and Mireille to keep her company. It’d been Aurore’s idea to tie the note to Nino’s bag, deciding that enough was enough. So Cole spent most of the night talking with Lahiffe, showing him the true story. She yawned, accompanied by the yawns of Mari and Tikki. 

“‘m tired,” Marinette mumbled, burying her face in the blankets and letting her hair fan out around her like a mane.

“Me too,” came the reply. “Wanna see if the squad wants to hang out tomorrow?”

“Sure.” There were a few taps and a sent message before the two cousins fell asleep beneath the soft string lights.

* * *

Unbeknownst to them, a livid Italian teen fumed in her room across town. That stupid baker girl and the punk f****t were ruining everything. Stupid Cesaire, stupid Hawkmoth. Stupid classmates. She hated them all.

Sure she loved how easily they were controlled, even Adrien. Then suddenly a new kid shows up and that pigtailed bitch’s confidence suddenly jumps tenfold. She has new “friends” who are nowhere near a gullible and stupid as her followers. 

Lila’s phone was open on her desk, a “call” from Alya coming through, the volume barely on and her mic muted. Lila didn’t care about how angry the reporter was. She was no use to Lila without her blog, except maybe as an attack dog or enforcer.

So there the Italian paced, trying to figure out her next move. She realized what a stupid thing it was to say that she was going to a different country, and unless she came up with a good lie on why she was still in Paris, she’d have to spend the summer cooped up in her house. That wouldn’t do. There’d be too many openings for her hold on those sheep to loosen if she didn’t keep them paying attention to her. Not to mention how badly she hated not having people kissing the ground she walked on.

“What to do, what to do,” Lila droned. Her mother thought she was upset over her friend’s suspension, but in reality she was simply angry. That one eyed bitch took out Lila’s most proactive attack mutt. She looked over to her blatantly open window.

Still no butterfly.

Where was he? Stupid supervillain. She should just steal _ his _ miraculous. Become the new Hawkmoth, then she could control everybody.

Then an idea popped into her head. She moved to her laptop and tapped in a search with reluctant disgust.

_ Collette Sullivan _

There wasn’t much, just some stupid middle aged women posting about their brats online. An old obituary for a “sweet and kind” woman from the UK, Lila had to resist the urge to gag. An idea popped into her head, she clicked on the ‘news’ tab.

_ Child Abuser Sentenced to Death Penalty, Majority of Police Plead Guilty to Corruption _

Had there not been a picture, Lila would have just scoffed and kept looking, but right there was a picture of the new kid, longer non-f*g hair and two eyes. Perfect. She pulled out her phone and clicked her mic back on and turned the volume up.

_ ‘“-and I just can’t stand that stupid Sullivan girl! She’s taken things too far!” _Great, she was still going. God the motor mouth just couldn’t shut up.

“Alya, I think I found something that might interest you,” Lila interrupted, masking her negativity behind a too-sweet voice. “I found an article online that is showing that girl in a child abuse case. It says something about along the lines of “Sullivan is sentenced to the death penalty after being convicted guilty of child abuse, assault with the intent to kill, corruption, and obstruction of justice.” Her picture is in the article, did she somehow escape custody? What if she hurts our classmates?”

Playing the scared victim seemed to always work with these bleeding hearted fools. Immediately Alya was up in arms, declaring they had to go to the police, get her deported back to America, something!

“I’ll leave you to that Alya, I trust you. I gotta go, Prince Ali is calling.” Without another word she hung up. Her cheery air left like a hurricane, her usual sour bitterness in its place. “That’ll take care of that bitch. Now onto ‘sweet Marinette’.”

The Italian went back to her computer, wholly unaware of a certain fox Kwami sitting next to the open window, recording everything via his holder’s borrowed iPod.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I felt disgusted with myself writing from that last perspective, like, the character's greasy-ness rubbed off on me. Ew. 
> 
> I really need to do another writing binge again soon (chapters 0 (the prologue) to about chapter 7 were written around early September, all within a span of two weeks or so, for reference), I also have some one-shots written up that I might upload if people want more casual shenanigans.
> 
> Anyways, leave kudos or a comment if you enjoyed (save for that roleplayer, who is still not welcome), and I hope you all have a wonderful week!


	8. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day out with new friends takes a turn, an akuma battle, and a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to @bigcheeseyboi on Tumblr for being my beta reader for this.

Marinette yawned as she woke up the next morning. The bed was softer than hers was, just as her cousin liked it. There was the funny snores of Dottie not too far away, and the smaller snores of Tikki and Trixx on the pillow not far from them. She rolled her head to the side, finding Cole laying there with her eye half open, blinking slowly. Seems Marinette wasn’t the only one having trouble waking up.

“mmm....Nettie?” Cole mumbled. 

“Mornin’,” Marinette replied. Cole grumbled and scrunched her eye shut.

“Five more minutes.” Marinette laughed sleepily as Cole put a pillow over her face. 

“C’mon, get up,” Marinette sat up and stretched. “What did the girls say?”

Cole grumbled as she sat up, searching for the phone in her covers. Turning the phone on elicited a hiss from the fox wielder, who scrunched up her eye and looked away until she adjusted. A few moments later she said,

“They’re game if we are. What do we want to do? Shopping mall? Wait, do they have malls in France? Or just boutiques?”

“Yeah,” Marinette stepped carefully off the bed. Dottie hopped down next to her, whining for attention. “There’s Carrousel de Louvre, Forum des Halles, and Beaugrenelle. Those are the big ones, but there’s also boutiques scattered around the city too.”

She reached down and scratched behind Dottie’s ears, sending the puppy’s tail wagging excitedly. Cole texted the group chat and got approval all around. 

The two went downstairs, followed by their kwamis and Dottie, who immediately went out the doggy door to the backyard. Marinette looked around the kitchen as the two kwami went to find their food. 

Aunt Adelaide, despite not spending much time at home prior to Cole and Grandpa coming to Paris, had kept the kitchen very up to date. Cole moved to one of the cabinets and tossed her cousin a croissant before taking one for herself.

They ate quickly, and went back upstairs to get dressed. Marinette had her regular outfit, save for the pants being a bit shorter, and Cole had her regular jacket, white shirt, sneakers, and wristband. After brushing their teeth, they went back downstairs. 

Dottie yipped at them as she looked up from her water bowl. She trotted over to them and put her paws up on Cole’s leg, tail wagging and eyes wide. 

“I should ask if they’re okay with me bringing Dottie along,” Cole thought aloud. “She hasn’t been around Paris much.”

As if to answer her question, the doorbell rang. Marinette ran over to get the door with a call of “Coming!”

Outside were Aurore and Mireille, with Chloe and Kagami just waving their drivers off. Much like the two cousins, the rising heat had made the girls change to warmer weather wear, shorts, skirts, short sleeves, etc. 

“Hey guys!” Marinette greeted.

“Come on in!” Cole called out. The four girls walked in, taking note of the sheer space in the place. Cole picked Dottie up and walked over. 

Mireille caught one look of Dottie and squealed in joy, rushing up and cooing over the puppy. The others approached on their own. 

“Aww she’s so cute!” Mireille.

“How old is she?” Kagami.

“How adorable!” Aurore.

“Are you planning on bringing her with us?” Chloe. Cole shrugged,

“If you guys will allow her. She hasn’t been out of the house much. Even with my suspension.” The four looked between each other. Hearing that Cole had been suspended not even three weeks into her being in Paris had been a shock, even if she did talk about violence quite a bit. 

Kagami smiled at the two cousins and said, “We’d love if she’d joined us.”

All the others added their agreement. Cole jumped up and down on the balls of her feet before rushing over to get Dottie’s harness and leash. 

After that was set up, they left the apartment and wound their way through the Paris streets. Aurore and Mireille showed Cole where the best places to eat were (since apparently Mireille ran a food blog in her spare time), Kagami pointed out the spots she enjoyed doing outdoor training with her mother, and Chloe showed them the higher end boutiques she enjoyed, even if the others couldn’t really afford them.

It was midday by the time they found their way over to Marinette’s favorite cafe, the same one she’d taken Cole to on her first day. The people at the counter adored Dottie, and as the group sat in the outdoor seating, they’d sometimes notice the staff stealing quick looks at the puppy who happily chewed on the pieces of carrot and bits of chicken that Cole had ordered for her.

“-he picked up the mic and it just _fell apart in his hands_,” Mireille laughed as she recalled a tale from the studio. “Then he just gave this really blank look. Like his mind just shut off. It was honestly the funniest thing to happen that day.”

“So _that’s _why he’s called ‘Mic Buster Alec’,” Aurore realized, giggling. Laughter circled around the table at the story. The blonde weather girl gave her girlfriend a quick kiss on the cheek while simultaneously stealing one of her fries. 

“_Betrayal_,” Mireille gasped, dramatically holding her head like she was about to faint. “I shall never recover.”

“And here I thought I was the Drama Queen,” Chloe snickered, sipping her drink. 

“You two share the role,” Kagami replied, her flat tone betrayed by the smirk on her face. Marinette giggled and added,

“You pass it between you like a baton.”

“Ya just go “Vibe check,” and toss it between each other like a football.” Cole snickered. A moment. “Wait I mean an American football, oops.”

“Nerd,” Aurore teased as Mireille tossed a keychain to Chloe with a giggly ‘Your turn!’ and Chloe beginning to pose overdramatically. Mireille pulled out her phone and began recording. Cole snickered and leaned over to make funny faces in the background. The absurdity made the girls laugh harder. 

“Oh man,” Kagami gasped between laughs. “Forget ab day, laughing this much does the trick.”

“My sides hurt too much,” Marinette said between laughing fits. It took several minutes before any of them calmed down to speak again. All six were red faced from laughing, but none of them put much stock in it. 

Eventually Kagami broke the silence. “What will we do next?”

The others all thought for a moment or two. Going to find Andre’s cart was out of the question, he was out of town visiting family. The movies were either boring, out of their age rating, or they’d seen them already. They could go to the malls that Cole had mentioned earlier, but then there was the consideration on if Dottie would be allowed in.

Just as Marinette was about to make a suggestion, a familiar face walked up. 

“M-Marinette, can I talk to you for a minute?” Nino asked. The girl in question took a moment to study him. He definitely hadn’t gotten any sleep, and he looked unnerved. Instantly the others at the table were on guard.

“Anything you want to say Nino,” Marinette replied. “Has to be said in front of the group. I’ve had too many people burn me by using “private talks”.”

“You were right.”

“Pardon?”

“You were right and I’m a fool,” He repeated. “I should’ve trusted you and I know you have no reason to trust me anymore but I just wanted to apologize because it’s the right thing to do. I shouldn’t have believed Lila’s lies, I should have known they were too good to be true. I shouldn’t have let them harsh the class’s vibe like that and hurt you. I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

Marinette blinked for a moment as her mind tried to process what she was hearing. As Nino turned to leave, panicking and stressed, Marinette lunged out and grabbed Nino’s wrist.

“Nino wait,” She said. He turned to look at her. “Sit with us, tell us what happened.”

“Is she sure about this?” Chloe whispered to Cole. 

“We can trust Nettie, and besides, she’s the one who has to either accept or refuse his apology, let her hear him out,” came the reply. Nino took one look at Marinette’s pleading face and pulled up a chair. Dottie curiously wandered over to sniff the newcomer, who gently pet her behind the ears.

Marinette took a breath and carefully chose her next words. “Nino, what brought you to the conclusion that Lila isn’t telling the truth? You were on her side a few days ago.”

“After Alya and Collette were dragged out of class on Monday, I got this really weird feeling in my gut. Chloe had told me to talk to Collette if I wanted the truth, but she’d been suspended. The next few days things just didn’t seem to add up. Lila just seemed so _false_ and it was really messing me up. Especially after Adrien confessed that she was lying when I confronted him. 

Then yesterday I found this note attached to my bag,” Here he held out the note. “I followed the instructions and the person I talked to had so much evidence and information about the whole thing. It was more thorough than I’d seen anyone really do.”

He slumped over in the chair, hat falling to rest on his glasses. “It made me realize just how much the class has changed. I already told my mom I want to change classes, I don’t think I could stand to be in there again. And I’m breaking up with Alya, Lila’s twisted her into someone I just don’t love. Don’t know how you stayed that long Marinette, you really are strong.”

The five other girls at the table stared at the boy, analyzing his every move. Marinette had been through enough betrayal. But breaking up with his girlfriend was something significant. Those who knew him from before he’d started dating Alya knew that they were_ that _couple, the one who for some reason became a single entity when they got together. The fact that the thought even occurred to him, much less that he was going to go through with it was unbelievable.

“Nino,” Marinette began. “Thank you for apologizing. It really hurt when no one believed me and chalked my suspicions up to jealousy. It’s going to be a while before I fully trust you again, but I forgive you. I know it must be hard, your view shifting so rapidly like it did, but I’m glad you’ve seen the truth.”

“Thank you so much Marinette,” Nino nearly sobbed. “You’re far too kind.”

“What class are you transferring to after break?” Aurore asked.

“My mom requested Mendeleiv,” Nino replied. “Said I needed a bit more of a stern teacher. And after how I acted this year, I can’t say I blame her.”

“You’ll be seeing a lot of us then,” Mireille said. “We’re all in Mendeleiv’s class too.”

“That’s a relief,” Nino sighed. “At least they won’t be all strange faces.”

“I gotta say though,” Aurore stated. “You’re gonna have one hell of a time dealing with the fallout when you break up with Cesaire. She’ll be foaming at the mouth when you do it.” 

“You’re right,” Nino replied. “D’ya dudettes have any tips on that?”

“Start by keeping a level head,” Mireille began. “And when she gets angry, keep cool.”

Cole took a large swig of her drink and set it down heavily, turning to the DJ. “Cesaire is gonna be pissed. She’s gonna yell and scream at you, and deny what you’re saying. Hold firm, say your peace and walk out. She’ll latch on like a snapping turtle and won’t let go until you take it back. You’ve gotta stand firm, especially if you said she’s changed for the worse.”

“And don’t be afraid to point it out, but don’t blame it all on her,” Marinette stated. “Say that she’s changed and you’re no longer happy in the relationship.”

“This is gonna be the worst, isn’t it?” Nino sighed, taking his hat off and running a hand through his hair. “I’m gonna be the villain aren’t I?”

“With how that liar is controlling that class like a shitty puppeteer? Undoubtedly.” Chloe replied. She fiddled with her sunglasses for a moment. “But I’d block those numbers before you do it, get it out of the way before it clogs up your phone.”

“And probably be prepared to hide,” Mireille added. “With how easily she was akumatized into Rena Rage, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had an akuma at your heels within minutes.”

The DJ paled considerably. Kagami observed his body language, he was genuine. If he showed loyalty through this, he may be trusted again.

“Sometimes I wish we could just call Ladybug and Vexxin,” Aurore sighed. “Just like ‘Hey guys a breakup is about to go down so be on watch at this spot’ so they can like, not be caught off guard.”

The group, sans Marinette and Cole, nodded in agreement. Marinette was clearly thinking, everyone could see the gears turning in her head. 

“But imagine how much worse some people would be if they could just call the heroes,” Chloe grumbled, despite thinking it would be nice to talk with Ladybug. “Cesaire would never be off her phone, and Rossi would be ten times worse.”

“Yeah, but I’m glad that there are new sources for hero information,” Nino replied. “Alya’s become more J. Jonah Jamison than Lois Lane if you get what I’m saying.”

He got a few nods, but some confused looks. 

“Her blog is basically a Vexxin Hate Twitter,” Cole stated, tossing a piece of chicken to Dottie, who happily gobbled it up. “I prefer _The Heroine Report_ and _Spotlights-On_, but _Miracu-Looking Glass _is still too new to make a decision in my opinion.”

“Thank you dudettes so much for hearing me out,” Nino said.”But I gotta go pick up Chris from school. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

“Good luck,” came the unison reply as the boy got up and left. They waved until he turned the corner. 

“Can we trust him?” Kagami asked Marinette, who nodded. “Alright, but he won’t get my full trust until he earns it.”

“I think everyone here is on the same level,” Marinette replied. “He’s clearly feeling guilty, enough to be that upset. But he has to show that he’s really learned his lesson before we can fully forgive and trust him.”

Dottie, who had been thankfully quiet the entire conversation, got up and whined, putting her paw on Cole’s shoe. The girl looked down at her puppy, rubbing her ears. The dog hopped up, sitting down in Cole’s lap. The rest of the group cooed as Cole gave a dramatic sigh with a smile.

* * *

Later that day, after saying goodbye to the others, Cole and Marinette were getting ready to go on patrol. Cole left Dottie with food and water, returning to her room. There she saw Marinette looking at a piece of paper with uncertainty. 

“What’cha got there Mari?” She gently sat down on the bed next to her cousin. Tikki flew around and settled on Marinette’s shoulder.

“I was just thinking,” Marinette sighed. “So much is changing for Marinette, so I’m thinking it’s time for some change for Ladybug.”

She held the paper at an angle, letting her cousin see. The ladybug suit had been redesigned, more padding on the shoulders, chest and sides of her legs, a mandarin collar, bracers and shin guards, with extra tread on the feet and some armored netting on the outlines of the shoulders and leg guards.

“It looks great,” Cole complimented the design. “You thinking of trying it out tonight?”

“I think so, especially if we might have to face Alya tonight.” 

“Well let’s do this then. Trixx, let’s pounce!”

“Right, Tikki spots on!”

The now transformed Vexxin turned to see Ladybug sporting her new look, getting used to the weight of the new additions to her suit.

“I said it once and I’ll say it again,” Vexxin teased. “It looks great on ya.”

The two cousins slipped out of the window and leapt across the rooftops. Vexxin pulled up her discord on her bat.

“Our contact says it’s gonna go down soon. Over by the Louvre.” 

The two heroines took the quickest possible route to the area, not even waving to the citizens below. They landed on the building across from the museum, hiding in the shadows as they watched Alya walk up with Nino. 

“He better not back out,” Vexxin muttered. Ladybug nudged her cousin who only grumbled in indignation. “It’s for the best, he said how unhappy he was.”

“He’ll do it,” Ladybug replied. She flipped open her yo-yo, activating the binocular function and zooming in. 

* * *

Down below, Alya was constantly interrupting Nino to do things on her blog or text Lila, making the boy even more firm in his resolve. 

“Alya please just put the phone down for one minute so we can talk,” Nino tried to plead with the girl. However it fell on deaf ears. 

“No time babe I gotta finish this article from the info Lila gave me. She said Vexxin was actually a prostitute in regular life, what a scoop! I knew she was no good.”

Nine's eye twitched. There was nothing wrong with sex workers, if they were adults doing it of their own free will. “Aren’t you supposed to be grounded from your blog?”

“Yeah but my parents are totally wrong, so I’m ignoring it,” She kept tapping away. “I know I’m in the right, especially with the info Lila gave me on that troublemaker last night. Can you believe it Nino? A child abuser! She escaped custody after being given the death penalty. We just have to organize how we’re gonna bring her in.”

“Alya-”

“I should’ve known the second she stepped in the classroom. She kept giving Lila glares. Considering her mother works for the government I’m not surprised she targeted Lila. We gotta bring her in, make her face justice.”

“Alya-”

“Then we can move onto Vexxin. We can report her to the police and if we get most of the public on our side, then Ladybug will _have_ to admit she made a mistake! Especially if Lila talks to her, besties usually listen. Then once that’s done I can be-”

“ALYA!” Nino finally yelled. The blogger jumped and fumbled with her phone for a moment before glaring at her boyfriend.

“What.”

“I’m done Alya,” Nino seethed. “I can’t do this anymore. Something’s changed between us and I won’t stay unhappy anymore. We’re done.”

“What!?” The blogger yelled back, going red faced. “You can’t just dump me!”

“I just did. We haven’t been on a date these past two months that hasn’t involved dumping our siblings on someone else. I’ve been more of a cameraman than your boyfriend, and you’ve just been so negative that it seems more like you’re prioritizing your blog over our relationship, like it’s at the bottom of your list of priorities.” He held his arms out, open and wide. “It’s bled into me too. My mom has even transferred me to a different class for next year because she wants it to end. I’ve dumped my brother on someone else too many times, and I’m not going to do it again. I’m done.

It was nice at the start, but I don’t agree with the direction our relationship is going. I’d say I’m sorry, but it’s for the best.”

“How dare you!” Alya shrieked, catching the attention of more people. “The Ladyblog is my _life_. If you get upset over that then too bad! I’m campaigning for justice!” She stopped, then a look of horror spread across her face. “They got to you, didn’t they? Marinette and her criminal cousin! They got to you didn’t they!? You traitor!” 

She tried to shove him but he ducked out of her reach. The reporter wouldn’t be stopped however, chasing after her boyfriend and yelling insults at him. He ran through the streets, hoping that there wasn’t an akuma lurking nearby. However, a shout of “Yes Hawkmoth!” behind him simply laughed in the face of his hope. There was his now ex-girlfriend’s corrupted shouts of rage as she launched after him. 

Nino’s chest ached as he put every drop of stamina he could into running away. As he rounded a corner, he felt a hand reach out and yank him out of the street and up. He flinched and shook, preparing for an attack, only for someone to hold a hand over his mouth and hiss out a shush. 

The DJ opened his eyes to see Ladybug and Vexxin kneeling next to him, Vexxin’s hand over his mouth. Down below he heard Alya yells, calling herself ‘Revengance’ and proclaiming her demands for Nino, as well as Marinette and Cole, to come forward and face her.

“Well that was a garbage fire,” Vexxin grumbled. Ladybug nodded. 

“You did a good job Nino,” Ladybug said quietly. “But for now we have to get you to safety. Vexxin, any sight of Chat?”

The fox hero peered over the edge of the rooftop, only to see Chat chatting up the akuma. 

“He’s there, but honestly he may as well be working for her.” Ladybug sighed and Nino gave a soft ‘dude not cool’. "What's your plan Ladybug?"

The heroine pressed her lips in a thin line. “We have to get Nino to safety.” She peered around the chimney. Revengance was screaming for her targets to come out, Chat Noir was now running around smacking her with the baton. Of course, he shows up for the first time in several attacks and immediately jumps right in.

“Vexxin, take Nino and hide him somewhere Revengance won’t find him,” She directed. “I’ll get the civilians out of the way, but get back here as fast as you can.”

“On it,” The taller hero picked the DJ up. “Stay safe Buggie, I’ll be back.”

The two disappeared over the opposite side of the building, leaving Ladybug alone on the roof. She had to do this, she _could_ do this. With a sharp flick of the wrist she sent the yo-yo flying, wrapping around Revengance’s wrists. 

“Enough Alya!” She yelled as the akuma shrieked, before turning to Chat. “And you, don’t act like such a novice Chat Noir, you have experience. Act like it.”

“Ah Ladybug,” Revengance jeered. “I’ll have your earrings, along with my revenge against those who’ve turned against me!”

The akuma yanked the string, pulling the spotted heroine down from her perch. Ladybug landed in a roll, glaring as the akuma growled.

“And you’ve changed your suit! I made my blog around that suit! How dare you!” Ladybug dodged out of the way of the akuma’s large hammer as it swung into the pavement, shattering it like glass.

“I have to agree M’Lady,” Chat pouted. “That does nothing for your figure. And you didn’t even ask me for my opinion on it.”

“I don’t owe either of you stock in how my suit looks,” Ladybug shot back, running and ducking under the swing of the hammer. “My suit is mine and mine alone. I made the decision I felt was in my best interest.” 

She kept ducking and dodging Revengance’s hammer and ignoring Chat’s comments. However, Lady Luck’s luck ran out and she tripped. She fell to the ground with a groan. Revengance laughed with an angry edge to it as she walked toward the spotted hero.

“Not so tough on your own are you Ladybug?” She sneered. “Lila was right. That hooker you stupidly gave the Fox miraculous to is nowhere in sight. She’s ruined you. Ruined everything. But, once I take your miraculous, I can make everything right again.”

Ladybug frantically looked around the akuma for what the object could be. She was wearing a jumpsuit similar to when she was Lady WiFi, but the lines were sharper, joined by a belt and her hair pulled up out of her face. She had a large hammer in both of her hands that had sharpened nails.

“Is that what they call it nowadays?” A voice growled. Revengance was slammed off to the side as Vexxin appeared out of thin air, looking mid-swing. The akuma’s hammer fell out of her hand, allowing Ladybug to seize it up and snap it over her knee. No akuma. Vexxin turned back to her cousin. “Sorry it took me so long Ladybug, had to get some civilians out of the way.”

“Good to see ya Vexxin,” Ladybug ran over to Vexxin, whose miraculous beeped the countdown timer. “You’ve got four minutes. Let’s make this count.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” They ran toward the akuma, knocking her down. Vexxin had her pinned by locking her arms behind her back and pressing her into the concrete while Ladybug took a moment to breathe and look for the akuma item. 

However, despite Vexxin being strong, the akuma was running on adrenaline and rage. Revengance threw her across the street, knocking over a mailbox. The akuma launched herself at the Fox heroine.

“Rena Rouge was replaced by a scumbag like you!? Why don’t I just take that back!” She reached out and tore the foxtail necklace off Vexxin’s collar just as Ladybug used her yo-yo to yank her off Vexxin. The akuma was flung into the opposite wall, only to cheer in triumph. “Yes! The fox miraculous is mine!”

Ladybug grabbed at the first thing she could think of on the akuma, a necklace whose origins escaped her at the moment, and ripped it off, stomping it with her newly reinforced boot. 

“What!? No!” Revengance yelled as the akuma left her. The now detransformed Alya took a moment to gather her bearings before cheering again. “I got the fox miraculous back!”

“No. No you didn’t,” Vexxin spat as she walked up, snatching the charm back and attaching it to her collar as there was a two minute beep. “Be right back Ladybug, gotta go recharge.”

“You’re not going anywhere!” Alya yelled, grabbing for Vexxin’s tail, which darted just out of reach as the heroine jumped away. The angered reporter spun to see an enraged Ladybug releasing a purified white butterfly. “And how could you! Rena was a fine superhero and you replaced her with a prostitute! Lila told me everything!”

“Lila has been feeding you nothing but lies Alya,” Ladybug spat. “She is vile and has twisted you and those classmates of yours into caricatures of yourselves, toxic ones at that. I even saw you just now try and attack a hero right in front of me. And you expect to get a miraculous? Never. You’ve twisted yourself into someone we can no longer support.”

“Lila’s never lied!” Alya shouted back. “They’ve gotten to you too! First my boyfriend and now this.”

“Considering he told you he was done not fifteen minutes ago- one moment, Miraculous Ladybug! - anyways, considering what he said, I believe the term is ‘ex-boyfriend.’” Ladybug said, tossing her yo-yo up in the air. “I thought my previous warnings to you were enough, but maybe what’s coming to you in the future will be a good long wakeup call.”

With that she zipped up to the buildings and leaving Alya to scream out her anger in the streets.

* * *

As she jumped along the rooftops to regroup with Vexxin and check on Nino, she was all too aware of the sounds of an annoyingly close black cat behind her. As she passed by the school, she saw Vexxin pop up with Nino in her arms, the DJ holding on for dear life. 

Ladybug skidded to a stop as she got closer. She regarded her cousin, fully recharged, as she let Nino stand on his own two feet. “Glad to see you’re okay Nino. But I’d lay low for a few days, especially with how quick that happened.”

“I will. Thanks Ladybug, thanks Vexxin. You dudettes really saved my bacon over there.” Nino smiled, straightening his hat. “Makes me wish I’d seen what's been going on sooner and gotten Alya away from it.”

Vexxin shook her head. “That scum would’ve gotten her shitty nails into her anyway.”

“You two don’t know what you’re talking about,” Chat Noir spat from his perch, where he fumed over the scene before him. “Lila’s lies aren’t hurting anybody. If everyone just didn’t say anything she-”

“Aight imma stop you right there Shit Noir,” Vexxin interrupted. “Rossi is less than a rat, she’s the scum between the shower tiles. You and that Agreste model can take your “don’t rock the boat” shit and shove it back up your rear where it came from. Why did you even bother showing up tonight? You haven’t shown up for the past several weeks.”

The green eyed hero fumed and hissed at the fox. “I came to help my Lady, but she’s still lugging _you_ around. And gotten a civilian involved. You’re a worse hero than I thought.”

“Chat,” Ladybug sighed. “If you’re just going to sit here and insult people addressing a problem, you can just leave.”

“Not until I’ve said my piece!” Chat shouted. “You’ve changed M’Lady, this isn’t you. You don’t wear a costume like this, and you certainly don’t run around with _that_.” Here he pointed at Vexxin. Nino seemed to make a connection and scowled. 

“I can make decisions on my own Chat, and I don’t need your advice on it. Vexxin is a good teammate and excellent friend. Your dismissal of someone who has been the cause of several akuma, both Chloe in the past and Lila now, are a gross negligence of what we're supposed to stand for. For you to do this and not show up or help in training or fighting, you’ve disgusted me more so now than ever.”

Nino looked over to Vexxin as Chat spat and hissed a reply the DJ didn't bother listening to. The fox had clenched her teeth and moved out of Chat’s line of sight as Ladybug grew as red as her suit. 

“Ladybug just admit you’re wrong,” Chat spat. “I’ll forgive you, we can get rid of this fox and leave Lila alone. She hasn’t done anything.”

“Alright,” Vexxin growled. “Vibe check!”

Her bat hit Chat dead center in the chest and sent him flying across the city. The cat hero yowled as he flew, sounding like he crashed into a dumpster several blocks away. 

“Dang dudette,” Nino gaped. “We better get out of here before he comes back.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Vexxin stated. “No regrets though.”

“As cathartic as that was,” Ladybug added. “We do have to go. Let’s get you home Nino.”

Vexxin raced off with the DJ in her arms, dropping him off where he directed her to. After giving a quick look for any rude cats, she left him there with a reminder to lay low. Ladybug on the other hand went and wound her way around Paris, checking for any more Akuma. She had to swipe one or two out of the air, but noted where she caught them, she could tell that one was headed back to Alya, and the other, to no one’s surprise, was headed to the Rossi household.

Honestly it wouldn’t surprise Ladybug if Lila had actually agreed to willingly work with that terrorist outside of akumatizations.

After that, the spotted hero found her way back to Cole’s house, glad she’d lost Chat, even if she wished Vexxin hadn’t had to hit him with the bat (at least let her get the first swing, jeez). She snuck into the open window, glad the more black on her suit made her less visible.

When she dropped in and dropped her transformation, Dottie happily got up from her spot on the bed and wandered over to her, licking at the teen’s cheeks and barking happily. Cole opened the door and walked in, carrying a tray of cookies which Tikki happily dove into.

“Man,” She sighed. “We need to nip this in the butt and fast.”

Marinette nodded.

It had to end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed. See you all next week!


	9. The Next Step

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Cole start their investigation into Hawkmoth and weather out the near continuous storm that is their lives. They see an old friend, and an akuma attacks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to @bigcheeseyboi on tumblr for being my beta.
> 
> If anyone celebrated, I hope you had a wonderful Halloween. I know I did, I worked a haunted house and stayed out until 3:30 eating at a Denny's with friends. 
> 
> And for anyone celebrating it, Happy Dia de los Muertos.

Over the next few days the two cousins changed one of the spare rooms in Cole’s house into an ‘investigation room’, with bulletin boards, whiteboards, a projector, and several binders worth of evidence. When asked for permission to use the room, Adelaide had given them a mischievous smirk and said they could use it so long as they “let her take legal action against whoever their target is, she wants them to suffer.” 

With that promise in mind, they were quickly cornered by Grandpa, who offered to teach the girls a few things he’d picked up as a detective. A few interrogation methods here, a new idea or hypothesis there. There was the “public” face of the room, all detailing how to ensnare a liar in her own web and to tear down her crooked empire, but the two teens were about 70% sure that the others didn’t know about their  _ other _ target,

Hawkmoth.

They didn’t hide it much, just swapped out bulletin boards, spun whiteboards, etc. But if anyone else knew, they didn’t say anything (Cole was pretty sure Adelaide and Grandpa knew, considering they were already pressing charges against the group of the room's public purpose, but neither cousin was sure about their friends). Things were going well in setting up their investigation, the room stayed neat, and they'd spent several hours just making sure they covered all their bases.

Outside the room however, things weren’t coming together as easily. 

The announcement of news outlets formally blacklisting the Ladyblog, replacing them with the Miracu-Media group, made up of  _ The Heroine Report, Miracu-Looking Glass,  _ and _ Spotlights-On, _ sent the media into a field day, especially with their interviews with Ladybug and Vexxin. Alya once again ignored her grounding to post an angry rant blaming anyone but herself and Lila; attacking Vexxin, the trio from Miracu-Media, Nadja, Nino, the two cousins, her family. Anyone that had tried to call her or Lila out. 

Ladybug had a workout that day keeping track of the akumas that day. Thankfully Vexxin was at her side and Chat had decided to skip that day. 

The Ladyblog was still up, and some of the more blindly loyal followers were lapping up the rants and “editorials” that Alya posted, all evidence coming from Lila of course. Some of the classmates were blowing up the cousins’ phones, enough for them to simply block the numbers, but their logs were noted for later.

Nino was trying his hardest to make up for his actions against Marinette. He'd come clean to his mother about the babysitting thing, sure it got him grounded from his DJ stuff for each day he ditched, he had to use his allowance money to repay Marinette and had to watch Chris without question when asked.

He too had had to block his old classmate’s numbers, and even had to sneak out the back door with Chris in tow when Alya had shown up and started banging on his door. Thankfully Nora hadn’t been too far behind and dragged the young girl back home, and Ladybug was there to quickly scoop up the akuma.

The DJ was slowly earning the trust of Marinette and her friends, he’d offer whatever he could, he’d try and talk one on one with some of the less convinced classmates, such as Nathanael and Ivan; he’d take screenshots of the old group chat that had everyone but Marinette, Chloe and Cole in it and hand them to the girls; he’d even use the group chat (since they never kicked him out) to help coordinate hangouts to avoid their toxic ex-classmates.

Marinette was the first to warm back up to Nino, followed by Mireille and Aurore. Chloe didn’t care either way, but Kagami still distrusted him. At Marinette’s request, Cole was amicable, but definitely still prickly with the teen. 

They still had a good time though, both with and without Nino. They’d taken Cole to Andre’s ice cream stand, been invited to a charity gala, had a sleepover, Nino asked Cole to help teach Chris how to skate, and they’d seen several akuma from the old class. All of the girls seemed to be doing well, Kagami won her competitions; Aurore, Mireille and Cole had fun at their internships; and Marinette got more commissions from Jagged and Clara. The lawsuits Adelaide had been filed, but the process was growing slow, although the girls were so busy collecting evidence and living their own lives to worry much until a formal lawsuit was issued.

Ladybug and Vexxin were quickly becoming more skilled in their powers. Ladybug had found she could summon two yo-yos, and even make a staff out of them. Vexxin found she could sense the Earth’s electric field, much like a real fox could, and was much more resistant to cold than before.

The two heroines spend their nights running over the rooftops of Paris and scouting out suspects for their Hawkmoth search, documenting the travel paths of any butterflies in transit, observing the times of akumatizations and constructing a profile of what Hawkmoth must be like. Sometimes they’d help out local kids, keep a good relationship with the public and maybe do a few more interviews with Miracu-Media. A few times they even talked about what to do about temporary holders.

* * *

One morning about three weeks into vacation Marinette came down from her room, she gave her mother a kiss on the cheek before saying she was going to go visit Master Fu. She’d told them he was teaching her meditation techniques and other things, which was only the surface of what he’d been teaching her as the next Guardian. 

The Chinese-French teen jogged through the streets of Paris when she got a text from Cole.

**Fox-With-A-Bat.jpeg** : I found something urgent with the hm search.

**Stitches-and-Swatches** : What’s up?

**Fox-With-A-Bat.jpeg** :  _ [Image of a very large and very old brown hardcover book. One corner is bent, and some of the original gold on the embossed design was worn away, but it was still visible.] _

“Tikki look,” Marinette hissed into her purse as she stepped out of the street and into the alley. The kwami flew out and gasped at the picture. 

“It’s a spellbook! One of the Guardian’s spellbooks!” Tikki cheered. “Where is it? Where is she?”

The kwami’s further rapid fire questions were cut off as Marinette’s phone began to ring, filling the alley with Jagged Stones’ “Rock Giant” single. She answered the phone lighting fast and put it to her ear.

“Cole!”

_ “Marintte! You wouldn’t believe this! I found the book in an old secondhand store! Grabbed it as quick as I could! Where are you!?” _

“Over by the Seine! Get over here with the book quickly! We  _ have  _ to look over it!’

_ “On my way, be there in ten!” _ With that there was a click and the call was cut. 

Not five minutes later, Vexxin hopped down behind the dumpster and after a moment Cole came out from behind it, book in her arms and Trixx scarfing down berries as fast as he could.

“Sorry about that,” Cole spoke quickly, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Trixx got impatient.”

“We gotta get to the Guardian fast! Go go go!” The kwami in question howled, tugging on his chosen’s hair. 

“We’re going, we’re going!” Marinette replied, pulling Cole along by her wrist. 

The two cousins and their kwami ran along the river before turning sharply and heading down the road until they came to an older looking massage parlor. Marinette opened the door hastily and shoved her cousin in. Cole stood stock straight as her cousin called out,

“Master! Master Fu!? There’s big news!” An older man of Chinese descent and wearing a red and white Hawaiian print shirt came rushing out as fast as his advanced age allowed him.

“Marinette? What’s wrong?” He noticed Cole, clutching the book tight with Trixx zipping around her. “And you’ve brought your friend?”

“Cousin actually,” Cole spoke up. “It’s good to see you again Sir. You gave me quite a scare the last time we met.”

“Apologies for that,” Master Fu replied. He walked closer and noticed the book in her arms. “What have you got there?”

“That’s just it Master Fu,” Marinette continued, she gestured to Cole. “Cole was at a secondhand store earlier today and found a copy of the spellbook!”

“Are you sure?” Master Fu raised a brow. Cole held the book out gently to him, careful of the book’s condition. The guardian took the book and ushered the two girls into the main room. The two sat on one side while Fu sat on the other. 

He looked over the book for several minutes, turning each page like it was made of glass, sometimes looking annoyed or upset at one or two pages. Marinette and Cole looked between each other, sort of nervous, sort of excited. Finally Master Fu delicately closed the book.

“Where exactly did you find this Collette?” He asked. Cole’s eyebrows raised, momentarily forgetting that he was probably told her full name by her grandfather.

“ _ Second Wind Turnabout _ , about three streets over,” Cole replied. “They said it’d just come in from an estate sale over in Provins maybe a week ago. I tried to get an address or any sort of donor info, but they didn’t have any.”

Master Fu sighed. So close. He looked between the two teens. “Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention ladies. If there was anything else we could gather from this situation, it’s probably scattered around the secondhand shops around the area.”

“Bummer,” Cole sighed. “We don’t even know what's out there.”

“Yeah,” Marinette added, reopening her purse for Tikki to run in and grab a cookie. “And we can’t be sure what’s simply stylized antiques and what are actual artifacts.”

Master Fu nodded solemnly as Wayzz floated down to sit on the man’s shoulder. They had a potential dead end in front of them, if only partially.

“Well at least we have this,” Cole shrugged, looking to Master Fu. “What’s it supposed to be? It wasn’t fully explained to me.”

“The spellbook, or Grimoire as it’s also called, contains knowledge of all the miraculous, their abilities, and some of the past holders. It was considered sacred in the Order of the Guardians, only two were ever made, one for ceremonial use, and the other kept in the libraries for more senior Guardians. One is being owned by Gabriel Agreste at the moment, and it seems fate brought the other here to us.”

“That’s good, but what’s our next step?” Marinette asked, fiddling with her earring at the mention of the older Agreste. Fu thought more for a moment.

“Go about your business as usual, but if you come across any more artifacts, please bring them by.” The two girls nodded. The bell atop the door rang and it was like a switch was flipped. Master Fu slipped the book over to Cole, who quickly held it tight. “Keep it on you, keep it safe, we’ll figure this out.”

Marinette and Cole nodded, saying their goodbyes as their kwami quickly ducked back in their hiding places. They headed out, past a customer, and into the streets. Cole tucked the book into her bag, which she slung over her shoulders. 

“What do we do next?” Cole asked. “You’ve been in this longer than I have.”

“I don’t know,” Marinette sighed. She slumped down on a bench, elbows on her knees and head in her hands. “Everything is a mess.”

“Yeah.” They stayed there for what felt like forever, neither feeling the need to speak. After what felt like an eternity, they heard a voice from Marinette’s side.

“Hey Ma-Ma-Marinette.” The duo turned to see Luka Couffaine strolling up, guitar case on his back. “How’s it been?”

“Oh, Luka!” Marinette waved to the older boy. “It’s um…it’s been better. Oh! This is my cousin Collette!”

“Sup,” Cole appraised the guitarist in front of her. She gestured to the guitar. “You any good at that?”

“I like to think so,” Luka replied with a small grin on his face.

“Yeah,” Marinette added. “Luka’s great at the guitar! He writes all of his band’s songs!”

“Cool cool.” Cole sat back on the bench. Luka looked uncomfortable for a split second before turning to Marinette.

“Gotten any good inspiration lately?” He asked. “I haven’t seen you around the boat much.”

Marinette winced, feeling guilty for ignoring the guitarist. “I’ve found a few for some really good designs. I’m thinking of making something based off some of the fun things I’ve done over the summer. But I’m sure you probably heard what happened from your sister.”

Luka scowled, making Cole tense. “You mean the lies she heard from that Italian that gives off the same aura as Bob Roth and has a song like a trash compactor? Sadly I have. How Jules still believes her I don’t know. Mom doesn’t believe her either, but she’s yet to make any sort of fuss large enough yet for us to ban her from the boat.”

The two cousins looked between each other, twin grimaces on their faces. Marinette patted the open spot on the bench between her and Cole. Luka gladly sat down.

“If it makes ya feel any better,” Cole replied. “My family is in the process of suing her and several others on a whole laundry list of charges. No diplomatic immunity will get them out of this. Besides, my mom checked. A certain Benigna Rossi isn’t the lead ambassador. She’s only a minor ambassador, therefore the immunity only applies to her. Plus I don’t think the Italian government would be too keen on letting Ambassador Rossi keep her immunity once they hear her daughter’s claims.  _ Achu? More like excuse _ .”

“Diplomatic immunity extending to family members is ridiculous anyways,” Marinette huffed. “To an extent I can understand the ambassadors themselves, but the family? No way. We’re seeing just how rotten people can be when they think they have immunity.”

Luka soured at the thought. He ran a hand through his hair, remembering the horrible things he’d heard through the thin walls of the houseboat about the two girls on either side of him. Insults like  _ liar, bully, monster, bitch, enabler, toxic,  _ and  _ “deserved to lose her eye”  _ were some of the things he’d overheard. It was one of the things that’d he’d actually gotten on tape o accident when trying to record his songs. He kept the recordings, both for song reference and as vindication.

“All that aside,” Cole looked back to Luka. “I didn’t see you around school. Where do you go to?”

“Oh, I’m in lycee. I’m like a year older than you two.”

“Ah,” Cole nodded. “Is it better than Dupont?”

“Honestly lycee is far better than college, at least in my opinion. Everyone starts to look less at drama and more at careers and universities. People just start to lack time for drama.” The two cousins smiled, one in relief the other in hope. 

“Man, it’s strange,” Cole hummed. “Back in the US I was already in high school last year, since we started it a year earlier than lycee does here. I wonder if they’re anything alike.”

Marinette tapped her chin in thought as well, “I mean, they’re probably similar in some ways. But I bet it’s probably more different than the same.”

“Back there we were able to get away with a bunch of weird stuff. I don’t necessarily think I’ll be able to get away with some of that in lycee.”

“Like what?” Luka asked. Cole grinned like a jackal and gave a devious giggle.

“Like wearing a recycling bin on my head and reciting Shakespeare while two others were sword fighting using yard sticks. Or the time the teacher left the room for nearly half the class and we made a conspiracy list on why he was taking so long, written on the board and everything. Or the time we started line dancing in class when the substitute left the room.” 

By the time she’d even listed the first one both Luka and Marinette had descended into laughter, clutching their stomachs and trying to breathe. Before he could say anything else, Luka’s phone went off. The guitarist fumbled for his phone as he tried to stop laughing. Finally he go it out and was able to read it.

Luka got up and stretched, still laughing, turned to the cousins. “Well, it was fun talking, but I gotta head out, my mom needs help repainting the boat since the repairmen are gone. Nice seeing you again Marinette, nice to meet you Collette.”

“Bye Luka,” Marinette waved.

“See ya,” Cole nodded along. As the boy left, the two cousins got up from their seats. Cole stretched with a sigh, arching her back and holding her arms above her head. As she turned to say something, she caught Marinette blushing. A cheeky grin spread across her face.

“What?” Marinette asked shortly. 

“Oh nothing,” Cole idly replied. 

“C’mon,” Marinette shot back. “Out with it.”

Cole twirled a lock of her bangs, “it’s just nice to see you happy again.”

Marinette nailed her cousin with a look when her phone rang. The ravenette pulled out of the pink and black cased phone, tapping the green ‘answer’ icon. “Hey Kagami! What’s up?”

Cole’s grin only grew as Marinette’s blush deepened slightly, thinking _‘Just Nettie’s luck_ _crushing on two people and not even knowing.’_

“No way!” Marinette exclaimed, still talking to Kagami. Cole pulled her phone out of her pocket, silently berating herself on putting off getting her cracked screen fixed. She pressed the button on the side, letting the screen flick on. Her background was a collage of pictures, some of her old teammates from Bloomington, her new friends, and her family. Across the top of the screen was a message from Chloe, some memes in the group chat from Aurore, and one from Grandpa wishing her a good day.

Cole and Marinette stumbled to the ground as the pavement beneath them began to shake violently. In the distance three large columns of smoke rose up as dust began to come through the streets. 

“Kagami I gotta go, it looks like there’s an akuma,” Marinette gasped. “Stay safe.”

She clicked off the phone and shoved it back in her pocket. Cole stumbled to her feet and pulled Marinette into the alley. The duo transformed and raced across the rooftops. It wasn’t very long before they found the cause.

The akuma took the form of a trio, one had a large hammer, another had a large scythe and the last had a shield attached to the other. Glowing cracks raced across her skin, glowing like magma.

“What the–” Vexxin was cut off by the ledge she was on crumbling. The fox yelped and leaped back up to the top of the roof. “What do you think they want this time?”

“Not sure, probably something to do with the ground, if the cracks are to mean anything,” Ladybug observed. One of the akuma slammed their hammer into the ground, sending Paris quaking again. The second sliced their scythe into the ground, opening up a large chasm in the street.

“Either way,” Vexxin shot back. “What’s the plan?” 

Before Ladybug could respond, the fox heroine’s fox ears twitched and with a call of ‘hold on!’ she leapt off the roof, scrambling over and sliding past the akumas to pull some civilians just out of reach as the chasm shot off a fatally deep fissure. Hot steam from a broken pipe shot up and blasted the heroine on her right side as she got the civilians to safety. 

Ladybug took a moment to survey the scene: three akuma, each one creating different forms of earth manipulation. The hammer created quakes, the scythe created chasms, but she had no clue what the one with the shield did. Either way they needed backup. 

Just what she’d been dreading.

Vexxin, now soaked and red from the steam, hopped back up onto the roof. She shook the water out of her hair, a hand reaching up to brush back her bangs, revealing the steam burned skin beneath it. 

“Ow,” She hissed. A green eye turned to her cousin. “Any luck?”

The spotted heroine shook her head. “We need backup. Think you can keep the civilians out of the way while I go get backup?”

“On it. And Ladybug?”

“Hm?”

“Be safe.” 

“I could say the same to you.” With that the bug heroine zipped back to Master Fu. She landed at the massage parlor, thankfully the customer from before was long gone. Master Fu looked up from his tablet, where he was decoding the spellbook. 

“Ladybug,” He said. “I’m to presume you came for an ally, yes?”

The pigtailed girl nodded, “Yes Master Fu, we’ve got a triple akuma causing massive damage to downtown.”

Fu thought for a moment, looking to Wayazz in a sort of silent question. The turtle kwami nodded his agreement. The elder man took this as a cue and removed Miracle box from its hiding place and picking out two miraculous.

“I hope you have someone in mind for these Ladybug,” Master Fu looked her dead in the eye. Ladybug’s affirmative stare and sharp nod were enough. She quickly retrieved them and made her way across the rooftops, the all too close sounds of Vexxin taunting and leading the akuma towards Jardin des Tuileries. 

Away from buildings, away from civilians. It was better than the other options nearby.

Ladybug landed at a secluded apartment a few blocks away, knocking on a familiar window. The glass was quickly shoved up, Mireille’s face poking out.

“Ladybug? What’s going on?” She asked. Ladybug slipped in, standing to her full height.

“Mireille Caquet, I have a favor to ask of you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha cliffhanger (I didn't mean for it originally it just ran way too long for it to be one continuous chapter. But there's plenty of good stuff coming. 
> 
> As always if you enjoyed leave a kudos or a comment (except for the roleplayer, in their case: go away.) I hope you all had a good week!


	10. Who's That?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers....it's whump time. 
> 
> Sort of, because a 3 v 1 akuma fight doesn't spell good things for anyone who is the "1". New allies also appear, as do other characters. The akuma fights lead to a question on Ladybug and Vexxin's next steps. A new face appears too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, there's been so much going on this week. Who else loves the Terry Bogard update for Smash, I haven't gotten to play as him yet but holy crap. And the RT Extra Life stream was really cool, its the amount of chaos I aspire to have.
> 
> (Also f*ck French rulings on hijabs. Just....fuck it. Whoever passed that needs more than their just desserts. Fuck Islamophobe rights.)  
(And a big middle finger to canon for what they did to Felix. Especially with the "evil twin" trope when the "Parent Trap" trope would have been so much better.)
> 
> Big thanks again to @bigcheeseyboi on Tumblr for being my beta for the 40k+ words on this fic so far. It's been a wild ride.

While Ladybug was gathering allies, Vexxin scampered between the buildings and into the gardens, cursing when she misjudged the distance between things. The skin where she’d been blasted by the steam ached, and she felt the pain building in her right eye socket again, her metabolism must’ve burned through her pain meds already. 

The akuma, which she’d learned called themself (themselves? She wasn’t sure which one would be more appropriate) Seisquake, was somewhat easy to wrangle, but they didn’t go quietly. 

Vexxin gasped for breath in a tree as the akuma tore up the gardens she’d lead them to.  _ Better than buildings, _ the fox rationalized. Her head spun on a swivel as she looked for Ladybug along the Paris skyline. She was grateful that the suit protected her, otherwise she’d have more bruises than she would be able to explain away.

“Come out, come out little fox,” Seisquake called out. The one with the shield gave a far-too-excited laugh and slammed their shield into the ground. A large slope of the ground shot up, forming a tall mountain both in front and behind them. Vexxin’s tail puffed up and her ears kept ramrod straight, flicking around for any threats incoming. 

“They’re so much fun to chase,” The one with the scythe replied to the one with the shield. “It’s such a shame the bug ran off.”

Should she use mirage? No, not yet, that would make them wary of anything else they saw. Vexxin leapt to a different tree just in time for the tree she’d been in to be swallowed by a chasm. 

“There she is!” The one with the hammer called out, slamming it down and knocking the tree down before Vexxin could land. The fox hit the ground and rolled hard, groaning. Slowly she got to her feet, subtly checking that her miraculous hadn’t come loose. She grabbed the bat off her back and got prepared for an attack, hissing when she realized one had escaped into one of her blindspots. 

_ C’mon Vexxin _ , she thought to herself.  _ You’re a fox, not a chicken. Don’t be scared just because you’re outnumbered. _

Her good eye shot between the three akuma triplicates, making her wince as her damaged socket tried to follow suit. Sure it hurt, but her duty was worth it. 

“Bring it,” She barked. Her ears flicked back and instinct guided her into a backwards leap over the hammer that came crashing down where she’d been standing just seconds before. She landed with a roll and stood. 

The akuma’s shield was thrown at her, spinning like a frisbee. Vexxin barely had a moment to think before muscle memory guided her into a batter’s stance. Putting the most force she could muster in, she pivoted on her spot and swung the bat as hard as she could. The impact of the shield on the bat reverberated up her arms and down her spine, making her teeth chatter, before the force took over and the shield was sent flying back, taking out the triplicate that’d thrown it. They landed several meters away in a half demolished fountain. The one with the scythe leapt at her, forcing her to block the blade with her bat. 

The glint of an all too familiar blade flashed through her mind and for a split second she faltered. Scythe pressed harder as Hammer seized the opportunity. With a heave and a slam, Vexxin was sent flying. 

Stars spun in her vision for a moment as she picked herself up, wincing how much it hurt to breathe.  _ Forgot how much a broken rib hurts _ , Vexxin thought.  _ Or is this just bruised? _

The fox looked over to where her bat had fallen, about halfway between the akuma and where she’d landed. 

“Y’know,” A new voice snarled. “You’re only getting what you deserve.”

Vexxin dodged Shield’s flying projectile, and caught sight of Chat Noir sitting on a fallen tree. 

“Fuck off Shit Noir or I’ll break your teeth in,” Vexxin spat back. “I’m busy.”

Vexxin ran towards her bat, jumping and flipping over the attacks incoming from varying angles by the trio of akuma. She hopped up and kicked Hammer in the head, sending them into Sythe. Her bat let out a loud clang as it made contact with Shield’s shield. 

Scythe sliced at her from the right as Hammer came in from the left. Vexxin used Shield as a springboard, flying up fast. She turned in air and slammed down feet first, crunching all three like a sandwich.

The fox heroine took a moment to breathe, only to regret it later when she was flung up into the air again as the akuma regained their strength. Suddenly Hammer was right next to her in mid-air, slamming their hammer into her. 

If Vexxin didn’t have a broken rib before, she certainly had one when she hit the ground, forming a crater where she landed. She gaped like a fish for breath, squinting her eye shut and tried forcing herself up.

The akuma trio were laughing cruelly. Vexxin was sent back to the ground again as Shield forced the area into a large, mountainous terrain. Distantly she heard Chat yowling as he was pulled up too, but she was still preoccupied with getting to her feet. The air felt far thinner now, definitely not helping her lungs.

“I’m gonna…urgh, find whoever pissed them off,” Vexxin hissed. “And beat them too. This sucks. ‘m gettin’ my ass kicked.”

Add them to her shit list. It already included about seventy percent of the people she’d met in Paris. It wasn’t that much, but the point still stood. 

The fox themed heroine finally got to her feet, wavering on the unsteady ground. She was on the lower portion, while Seisquake was on a three tiered cliff face that towered above her. A yowling Chat Noir was stuck on a small outcropping a bit away from them, but seemed to still not help. 

"Aww," Hammer pouted. "Did we break little Foxy here already? That blog  _ did say  _ she was pretty weak.”

“That blog,” Vexxin spat, “is trash ...What's your goal anyway!?”

“Far too long have we been made fun of for our love of seismology,” Scythe declared. Hammer and Shield nodded. Scythe leveled their blade at Vexxin. “Hawkmoth gave us the power to show that love and the power of the shifting earth to everyone! And we’re not going to let you ruin it!”

“Hate to burst your bubble,” Vexxin growled back. “But Paris isn’t exactly suited for this, and you’ve hurt people doing this so it’s time to put a stop to it.”

The trio sent out their attacks. Vexxin dodged the flying shield, jumped over the sudden chasm, and tried to keep herself steady in the quakes. 

_ C’mon Ladybug, _ Vexxin pleaded.  _ Need a little help here. _

Her luck ran out as the shield came around her blind spot and slammed into the back of her knee. The fox tumbled to the ground and tried not to scream at the  _ not good _ feeling in her knee. 

She opened her eye to see Scythe standing above her, blade level with the fox pendant on Vexxin’s chest. 

“You’re done Fox.” 

Vexxin refused to close her eye as Scythe reared back to slice her, but even then she missed the entrance of a familiar yo-yo, wrapping around the pole of the weapon and yanking it out of the akuma’s grip. 

“What!?” Scythe yelled as she followed the path with her weapon. Vexxin was about to sit up when she felt arms grab her under her arms and yank her back. She was about to fight when she heard a new voice.

“Relax, the cavalry’s here.” The person pulled Vexxin behind one of the nearby jagged spires that had sprung up. They sat her down and Vexxin got a good look at them. 

They were shorter than her, though to be fair nearly everyone her age was, and had white blonde hair with two long blue streaks tied in two high pigtails at the back of her head. She wore a blue waistcoat with the tails extending to her knees and shorts with netting on the edge. A white bodysuit was underneath, connecting from her black choker and disappearing beneath her gloves and ankle boots. A belt was slung across her waist, where a folded up parasol was clipped. A white, black, and blue mask kept her face covered, but Vexxin’s eyes were drawn to a pocket watch clipped to her choker.

“Who are you?” Vexxin asked as she tried to stand back up. The girl rushed to keep her steady. 

“Call me Lapin,” The girl replied. “Ladybug brought us as backup. Just in time too. You okay?”

“‘Us’? Who…?” Vexxin peered out to see Ladybug fighting alongside someone else she hadn’t seen before. A dark haired girl with two goat horn hair clips and wielding dual daggers flipped over Hammer and slammed the pommel of her dagger into their head. With a shout of ‘Summit!’ she was maneuvering over the terrain faster than even the akuma, leaping up the near sheer cliff edges almost effortlessly. 

“That’s Capri,” Lapin explained. “We got here just in time too.” The heroine, obviously a rabbit holder, tried to pull her back.

“We have to get back in there,” Vexxin tried to get back in the fight, but Lapin pulled her back again. 

“Just give me a minute and we can,” Lapin chastised her. The rabbit pulled a ribbon out from behind her waist and wrapped it several times around Vexxin’s affected knee, tying it firmly. Vexxin gasped as it made the pain spike for a moment before it died down a bit. “There.”

“Thanks,” Vexxin replied. “What’s Ladybug’s plan?”

“She already took out the scythe, we’re taking out the shield,” Lapin said as they dashed as fast as they were able to. Shield was actually trying to fight Chat, but the cat was only dodging and complaining. “Did you figure out where the akuma was?”

“I couldn’t get a good enough look,” Vexxin replied. “I was a bit busy. I’ll take the left, you get the right.”

Lapin nodded, splitting the handle of her umbrella in half to reveal a communicator. “Ladybug, Vexxin didn’t get a good look at the akuma, have you and Capri found it?”

_ “It’s their goggles!”  _ came the reply. Vexxin focused in on Shield, noting that the goggles had a thin strap, making it easier to tear off. Lapin noticed it too.

“Force them into a corner?” Lapin asked. “Or should I use my power?”

“Depends, what’s your power?”

“Space and time portal.” They watched as Chat Noir sailed over them, firmly out of the fight due to Shield. Vexxin looked back to where Ladybug and Capri were still battling Hammer, with Scythe stuck to the ground by one of Capri’s daggers, their goggles now stuck around Ladybug’s neck for safekeeping. 

“I’ll attack her from the front,” Vexxin directed Lapin, pulling herself away from the rabbit’s support. “When I have her occupied, get in behind them and yank them off.”

“Are you sure?” Lapin replied. “Your knee, you’d be fighting with a handicap.”

Vexxin gave a dry scoff, almost amused. She quickly pushed her bangs back, showing the lack of a second eye hole in her mask. “I’ve been fighting  _ all _ my battles handicapped Lapin, this’ll be no different.”

Lapin gasped, holding her hand over her mouth. Vexxin turned back to Shield, saying over her shoulder, “Get ready. We’ve got one shot.”

Vexxin hopped over the ridge and ran at Shield. The akuma gave a twisted grin, running toward her. As she raised her bat, Vexxin braced for impact, knowing it was going to hurt. The clang as bat met shield rang out across the area, shaking everyone to the bone. The two growled as they pressed forward from either side, not wanting to give in to each other. 

“What a joke,” Shield hissed. “An all out attack? You’re more desperate than I thought.”

“Not desperate,” Vexxin spat. “Just clever.”

There was a sound behind Shield and they were jabbed in the head by Lapin, wielding her parasol like a sword. Using her momentum, the rabbit heroine flipped over the akuma and pulled the goggles off Shield’s face. 

“No!!” The akuma wailed. Vexxin hopped over to Lapin, who tossed her the goggles. Lapin’s pocket watch chimed a five minute countdown, the clock hands ticking away one of the dots on the watch. 

“Let’s wrap this up,” Vexxin pulled the goggles over her own neck, mirroring her cousin. The two wielders barreled over the terrain, trying to dodge spikes and chasms that still remained. Ladybug and Capri were holding their own against Hammer, but it’d take more than just the two of them to take the akuma down. Vexxin leapt up, wincing at the pull in her injured leg, Lapin followed suit. The two landed on Hammer’s back arms around their neck like two children in a poorly planned piggyback ride. 

Hammer backpedaled fast shaking and spinning in an attempt to fling them off. Lapin jabbed her umbrella into Hammer’s ribs several times as Vexxin aimed kicks to the back of the akuma’s kneecaps. 

Luckily, that ambush gave Ladybug enough time to breathe. She flung her yo-yo at Hammer’s ankles, tripping them. Vexxin jumped off, dragging Lapin and Hammer’s goggles with her.

“Quick!” Ladybug shouted. “Break the goggles!” 

The straps of the three goggles were all too easy to break, the dark butterfly reforming from the three pieces. Ladybug swiped it up in her yo-yo, cleansing it.

“Miraculous Ladybug!” She called out. The swarm surrounded them and as fast as any of them could blink, they were standing in the restored gardens. Vexxin heaved a sigh of relief as the pain in her chest and leg were gone. 

The three akuma reverted into their civilian forms, three overtired and overworked university students settled among the restored flowers. The tallest, formerly Scythe Seisquake, groaned and rose up.

“What happened?” 

“You were akumatized,” Ladybug explained. “Along with your friends. It’s alright now.”

“We’re really sorry Ladybug,” another said. From where they were, Vexxin guessed they’d been Shield Seisquake. “We just got tired of the university cheating our program out of resources.”

“Take it up with the President of your university,” Capri suggested. “If they don’t do anything, make it public. Universities will generally comply if there’s the possibility of a scandal.”

“You summed up the entirety of the Paris school system Capri,” Lapin replied. A beep drew her attention back to her pocket watch. “Erhm, Ladybug?”

“On it,” the spotted heroine replied. “You and Capri with me. Vexxin, I hate to leave you again but…”

“Don’t worry buggy,” Vexxin waved it off. “I’ll make sure they’re safe. It was cool working with you, Lapin, Capri. Maybe we’ll meet again.” 

“It was so cool to meet you too!” Lapin waved as the three jumped off into the Paris skyline as the first responders, trained in akuma processing procedures, showed up.

* * *

A few blocks over, Capri sat up on the fire escape as Lapin detransformed down below. Her hair faded to wheat blonde, blue going away entirely as her twintails returned to being behind her ears. Her suit faded and was replaced with her blue and white dress. As Fluff floated into her waiting palms, Aurore Bueareal held out the kwami and miraculous back to Ladybug. 

“Thank you Ladybug,” She said. “For choosing me. It was an honor to fight alongside you and Vexxin.”

“Thank  _ you _ Aurore,” Ladybug replied in a quieter voice, so as not to alert the goat heroine sitting above them. “For agreeing. You’ve shown your resolve and loyalty in the face of adversity in your everyday life. That takes a lot of courage." 

"Th-Thank you," Aurore replied. Fluff nuzzled tiredly at her finger before slipping into the pocket watch. "And tell Vexxin it was an honor to fight alongside her too." 

"I'll be sure to tell her," Ladybug replied. She slipped the jewelry box into her yo-yo for safe keeping. "Bug out!” 

Capri took this as her cue to follow Ladybug. They landed minutes later at her apartment, slipping in through the open bedroom window. Capri released her transformation, reverting back to Mireille, Ziggy settling in her hair.

“That was fun!” The kwami giggled. She looked to Ladybug. “Can we team up again sometime.”

“When the time is right,” Ladybug assured. She redirected her attention to Mireille. “Thank you for your help today Mireille.”

“I should be thanking you Ladybug,” Mireille insisted. “It was amazing, if a bit scary. I never realized just how tall Vexxin really is, the pictures don’t do her justice in that, do they?”

Ladybug laughed, shaking her head. Ziggy bleated out a laugh too, diving back into her miraculous. “She is rather tall. Well, I’d better be going. Don’t forget what I said.”

“‘Don’t reveal my identity to anybody and act like nothing happened,” Mireille recited. “Thank you again Ladybug.”

The pigtailed heroine smiled, retrieving the miraculous and slipping into her yo-yo alongside Fluff’s watch. She gave a little wave and left the apartment, zipping back to the gardens. 

The former akuma trio were still there, talking with Vexxin and first responders. Over behind one of the trees, she noticed the trio from Miracu-Media waiting, likely until Vexxin was done with business. Ladybug was relieved, she walked over to her cousin as she seemed to have just wrapped up with the first responders.

“That was...something,” Vexxin sighed, looking to her cousin with a weary smile. “Ready to talk to the press?”

“Only if you’re up to it,” Ladybug replied. At Vexxin’s nod the two heroines approached the three reporters. Marine waved to them the small charm bracelet on her wrist catching the light. “Hey there.”

“Ladybug! Vexxin!” Carmen, a tall and muscular dark skinned girl, waved to them as they got close. “That was some fight today. Are you two doing okay?”

“A bit worn out, but that’s just par for the course,” Ladybug replied.

“I’ll live I guess,” Vexxin said, her small smile giving away her joking manner. “How’ve you three been?”

The general consensus seemed to be good. Miracu-Media was booming, and while they got a few nasty comments here or there from various sources (including the typical “holier than thou” washed up TV show host, a celebrity that's fallen out of the public eye, and several poorly concealed accounts from Lila, Alya, and several die-hard Ladyblog fans), but those were generally drowned out by all the positive comments. Louise was working with local therapists on tips for akuma prevention, Marine had received a photography award and a fashion scholarship, and Carmen won the junior regional weightlifting championship.

“That was a rough akuma today,” Louise, the middle height of the trio, shifted into ‘business mode’ as the others had called it, tucking her pastel colored hair behind her ear. he“Do you two know what caused it?”

Ladybug nodded, “the akuma today was caused by a trio of university students who’d been ridiculed for their study and were angry at the university for the treatment of their program.”

As Louise wrote that down, Carmen spoke up,

“What powers did they have?”

“I can answer that,” Vexxin stated. “The akuma had three people, and therefore three different weapons. One had a scythe that created fissures when swung into the ground. The next had a hammer that caused quakes. And the final had a shield; it created large raised sections like cliffs and spires when hit into the ground.”

Carmen wrote it down, wincing at Vexxin’s muttering of “hurt like a bitch when it took out my knee but oh well.” Ladybug looked to her cousin, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“You were awesome today Vexxin!” Marine exclaimed, taking a moment to adjust her headscarf. “That was your first solo fight wasn’t it?”

“Um, yeah,” Vexxin twiddled with the wrap on her bat. “It was a bit nerve-wracking, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do y’know? Take a few hits, get up and keep going.”

“And what of the two other heroes that appeared today? Are you able to shed some light on them?” Marine, a short girl with a peach colored hijab pressed. Ladybug gave a “so-so” hand gesture.

“The two new heroes you saw today were named Lapin and Capri. They’re the new call in backups. They don’t keep their miraculous, so you won’t see them around unless they’re called on for one reason or another.”

“But what of Queen Bee? Carapace? Ryuuko or Viperion?” Ladybug took a deep breath and sighed.

“Viperion wasn’t selected for this fight because other miraculous suited the situation more. The others….I have thought long and hard and talked it over with Vexxin. The conclusion we came to was that due to identity issues, Queen Bee and Ryuuko will not be returning. Carapace on the other hand? Carapace violated my trust outside his mask, and while he’s working to regain my trust simply because he feels remorseful for his actions, it’s unlikely he’ll be returning.”

The trio gave each other looks of uncertainty. Finally, Louise asked,

“Who will you call if you need someone for those miraculous then?”

“We’ve been making plans, but it’s come to selecting new wielders for those miraculous. I’ve talked it out with the former holders, they understand what’s happening and support the decision.” The trio looked more relieved, writing the information down. 

“And what about Chat Noir?” Louise asked them a bit quieter, gesturing to the cat who’d long since left the scene. “He seemed really angry when you were trying to help the victims Vexxin.”

The fox frowned and replied, “Unfortunately I won’t comment on that for now. That’s still something we have to take care of.”

The Miracu-Media trio interviewed the girls for several more minutes before concluding the interview. Both parties thanked each other for their time and left the gardens. Ladybug and Vexxin sailed over the rooftops.

For a moment Ladybug could almost feel at peace, letting the wind through her hair and the sun on her face. There’d be moments she’d feel weightless, like she were flying. Then as she caught herself it’d be almost like she was one of those comic book superheroes she’d remembered pretending to be when she was little.

“Hey,” Vexxin waved her cousin over. Ladybug slung her yo-yo around her hips and walked over. 

“What’s up?” She replied. Vexxin didn’t say anything for a moment, as if debating on what to say. She’d open her mouth, pause, then close it again. She did this several times before finally saying,

“What  _ are _ we going to do about Chat Noir? I mean, we have ideas for how to deal with him, but which one are we going to do?” Ladybug sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, she’d dreaded making a decision on that.

“I….I’m not sure yet,” She finally said, putting a hand on Vexxin’s shoulder. “But we can talk about it later. Now, are you really okay?”

Vexxin didn’t reply verbally, instead giving a hesitant nod. Ladybug reached forward and hugged her cousin, trying not to guess whether the fox’s racing heart was because of the fight or something else.

“Is the plan still in place?” She asked, looking her cousin in the eye. Ladybug nodded, not wanting to say anything aloud in case a certain cat was still around. Seeing no reason to stay like this, they leapt off to de-transform.

* * *

A few minutes after they slipped out of an alley Marinette’s phone rang again. The pigtailed girl’s nose scrunched in curiosity as she pulled it out of her pocket.

“Chloe?” The two cousins said in unison as they peered at the phone. Sure enough a picture of the blonde, taken mid dance battle during their first sleepover, took up the screen as it signalled a call. Marinette swiped at the screen and put it to her ear. 

“Chloe? What’s up?” Marinette asked. Cole could hear the blonde’s voice through the phone’s small speaker, but couldn’t make out what was being said. “Okay, hold on.”

She pulled the phone away and tapped it again, “You’re on speaker phone. Behave.”

_ “I’m not finishing that meme Marinette,” _ Chloe’s voice came through the speakers.  _ “I know better than to fall for that. Now both of you better get over to the park. We’ve got a picnic set up.” _

At that the blonde hung up, leaving neither cousin a moment to argue. Seeing no reason to decline, the duo began walking through the streets to the park. As they did Marinette leaned over to Cole. 

“Still have the envelopes?” 

“Yep, are we still good for tonight?”

“We’re clear for it.” 

“Marinette! Cole!” A voice shouted out. The cousins looked up to see Aurore, wearing blue shorts and a white top with deep blue sneakers, jumping up and down as they approached. 

The park was surprisingly occupied given the midday time, the late July sun beating down on them. Sitting on a blanket behind Aurore, beneath the shade of the tree above them, were the rest of the group. Mireille and Chloe were chatting about something, while Kagami was listening as Luka strummed his guitar. Nino was rifling through the picnic basket for something. 

What was strange to the two cousins was the seventh person, sitting straight and reading a book. He was about Luka’s age and had sharp features. Despite being shorter than Cole, he towered over the rest of the group all the same. With pale skin, eyes, and equally pale hair, one could joke he either was a vampire or spent his life indoors. Given that he was clad in dark pants, long sleeve dress shirt, vest and tie, the latter might be more true. 

“Hey Aurore,” Cole replied as she waved to the weather girl, eyeing the new person. 

“Marinette, Collette,” Aurore held her hands in a gesture to the boy. “Meet Félix.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day.

**Author's Note:**

> Did you like it? Did you not? Leave a review, let me know what you think.


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